The Athletics Scholarship Student
by ShadowStained
Summary: Left bitter and injured after a tragic accident, the once professional fighter Pandora Jones is reduced to a little girl attending a rich school on a scholarship she can no longer live up to. Everything she lived for is out of her grasp now and Pandora is given the chance to live a better life. But fighting was her life and she doesn't want to give it up despite her new disability.
1. A Pink School

**_The Athletics Scholarship Student_**

 _Chapter 1_

 _A Pink School_

 _Disclaimer: Clearly, I don't own Ouran based off my awful attempt at the anime's style for the cover photo. Pandora is my bitch tho._

 _*Italicized words are in English_

* * *

The prestigious Ouran Academy offered three scholarships every year in an area of focus. There was the obvious academics scholarship, this year taken by first year Fujioka Haruhi. An artistic scholarship that no one had met the criteria for this year. And finally, an athletics scholarship. Soon to be first year Jones Pandora received her letter of acceptance several months before the school year.

A week later, Pandora was in an accident.

The school was an unsightly shade of pink, Pandora found when she stood in front of the front hall after being dropped off by her host mother. Recently transferring from America she was glad to find the school was very European inspired in architecture and it was a very culturally mixed school. She wouldn't be required to change into indoor slippers for one, which Pandora was especially glad for.

Pandora was a bit out of place despite the many cultures featured in the school. Her hair was a bright fiery red shade and her eyes a somber shade of gray-green, and while there were certainly more redheads Pandora also stood out because of two things.

She was short. Pandora was only, in American terms, 4'8. She was four feet and eight inches tall, and she was absolutely not happy about this. Ever since she reached middle school she waited for her growth spurt. When it never came and she realized she wasn't going to get any taller, Pandora was outraged. But she learned to live with it because there was certainly nothing she could do to make herself taller. Despite being a legal midget, calling her such would not end well.

Entering the school Pandora went about seeing the headmaster and setting up her timetable. Her Japanese was still a bit rusty and she fumbled over some words but the headmaster was very understanding and encouraging. He was a very polite and friendly man with a large smile that could nearly ease Pandora from her constant guarded state.

"Regarding your disability, Jonzu-san." Headmaster Suoh stumbled over Jones.

Immediately, there was a change in the girl's eyes. The somber tone her eyes had immediately turned stormy and bitterness took in the headmaster. Her eyes were a gateway to her soul and as she clearly had a mental battle, her eyes reflected it perfectly.

Defeated, Pandora quietly said, "Allow me a five minute pass, sir. I'd rather not be in the hallways for passing periods."

The school was an interesting mix of Japanese and American. The school day began at eight in the morning and classes ended at two, clubs then went on until about four. Classes were about forty five minutes and for the mandatory classes, math, Japanese, science, and history, the students would remain in class and the teachers would move. There was lunch for an hour following these before electives. Electives included a mandatory gym class with your class, a language, and two free spots. The electives could be for a full year or be on a rotation schedule throughout the year. Electives required the students to move to specialized classrooms thus Pandora's request for a five minute pass.

"Of course. And, what about gym?" Headmaster Suoh inquired.

"I'm not up to that level quite yet." Pandora admitted, her eyes lowering to the floor, "Hopefully by mid-year I'll be able to participate in low level activities."

As Pandora left the headmaster's office, she wanted to break her cane over her leg. It wasn't that tough and she could do it without even thinking, she bet.

Pandora's accident left her nearly crippled. Her left arm couldn't grip a pencil so she was slowly transitioning to writing righty and the fingers twitched on their own accord. Pandora's legs were the problem. Both, she were told, would never be back to where they had been. She had a thick metal brace on her right knee and her ankle that connected. She was lucky they hadn't amputated it but not being able to move much faster than a hurried stumble pissed her off. Her left leg was unsteady and like her left hand, she couldn't control it and it twitched and spasmed on its own will.

Her accident was a tragedy. The famous and undefeated kickboxer and mixed martial arts master Jones Pandora would never be able to fight ever again.

Left bitter and small, Pandora was left to the world's devices. The prideful and naturally aggressive fighter who could toss men outweighing her by two hundreds pounds like they weighed nothing was reduced to a somber and spiteful little girl.

Pandora leaned against the wall to observe her schedule. She was in Class 1-A as all scholarship students must be in the top fourth of their class in academics. Then she was taking English-3, pottery, traditional culture, and instead of a gym class she had a free period.

Tears nearly leaked from the corner of her eyes as they became suddenly glossy. Forcing them away the proud girl used the map that accompanied her schedule to start towards her class.

She passed through the athletics hallway. She hobbled slowly and the brace on her right leg made noises as she moved. It was the only noise in the hallway until she reached the club rooms. Many martial arts were practiced here and her eyes lingered hungrily on the board.

Pandora imagined herself walking through this hallway. She once walked with purpose and strength in her gait. Her back was always straight and people moved out of the way for her despite her short stature.

It was painful to come out of the reverie when she heard footsteps. Not wanting to be seen gazing so intently at the club listing, she turned to look at the award case that lined the other wall.

A tall manly student with sweat glazing his face and dripping from his dark hair passed by her. His steely eyes noticed the glassy look in her eyes and he clearly, very obviously, could see her cane and the brace over her leg. But he said nothing and only walked towards the shower room while rubbing his face with a towel.

Not wanting anyone else to see her Pandora left the hallway with a last wistful glance towards the club listings.

When she reached the classroom the homeroom teacher greeted her politely. Pandora explained her five minute pass as well as the reason she was wearing an odd rendition of the uniform. Due to her leg brace Pandora had to wear the male's uniforms pants but Headmaster Suoh requested she wear a specially tailored unsightly yellow blouse that somewhat resembled the top part of the female uniform. Pandora could honestly say she was glad she didn't have to wear that ugly yellow dress that was straight out of the eighteen hundreds.

Class began at eight on the dot and Pandora effectively blended into the background despite some odd looks she got for her disabilities and different uniform. Pandora slipped out unnoticed when it was time for her to leave and she made it to the lunchroom before the hallway was crowded with people.

She didn't dare order the expensive lunches and instead had a healthy bento her host mother had packed for her. She sat alone in the corner with many glances sent in her direction. Pandora did see the tall student from the athletics hallway and when he looked at her she glared back as fiercely as she could.

English was an opening where they just introduced themselves in English and went about trying to discuss their likes and dislikes. Pandora had a stilted conversation with the clear slacker who sat in front of her. Pottery was spent with the beginning of year lecture about how to use the equipment and etc. Finally, traditional culture looked like a promising elective although a bit of challenge due to Pandora being American and being here all of a week so far.

When the day ended, Pandora found herself in the athletics hallway after club had started. She stared at the club lists and her right hand made a fist. Her arm started to shake as her anger boiled over.

" _Fuck_!" she swore, slamming her cane into the floor. She seethed and took deep, angry breaths to calm herself. When she went to grab her cane someone else beat her to it.

Pandora glared at the offending offer of help as a boy hardly any taller than her held her cane out for her to grab it. Pandora snatched it and leaned on it while giving the boy a nasty look.

He was small and blonde with big, emotional honey brown eyes. He carried a pink bunny under one arm and he tried to give her a smile but it was clear he had an agenda for talking to her.

"What do you want?" Pandora hissed after reciting what she would say in her mind to make sure she didn't have to stumble mid angry snarl, "Here to pick on a cripple!?"

"I saw you looking at the club lists. Were you thinking of joining one?" the boy asked, turning to join her in peering at the club listings.

Pandora snarled, "Don't patronize me!"

"I'm not." the boy smiled and Pandora found the genuine smile made her take a step backwards.

"Tch, yeah right." Pandora turned away from him, "You'd be sorry if I wasn't like this."

She stumbled into an abdomen that felt more like a brick wall than part of a human body. Looking upwards and taking a few steps back Pandora found the tall, gray eyed student standing there.

He crossed his arms, "Apologize."

"I'm sorry?" Pandora sputtered.

He gestured to the smaller boy who was giving Pandora a good show of crocodile tears, "Apologize."

"Why should I?" she scoffed.

"Mean to him."

Pandora narrowed her eyes, "What is this? Pick on a cripple day? He's the one who, eto, _fuck_ , patronized, _there we go_ , patronized me."

"Apologize." repeated the giant.

Pandora spun as quickly as she could to the blonde, snapped a hurried, " _I'm sorry_!" in English, then hobbled off, snarling under her breath, " _You'd all be sorry if I wasn't like this. Every single fucking person in this goddamn world would be_."

As Pandora disappeared around a corner, Haninozuka Mitsukuni, more commonly referred to as Honey, looked up at his much taller cousin, Morinozuka Takashi, also more commonly known as Mori, and said, "Ne, she seemed kind of familiar, Takashi."

"In our English class." grunted Mori and Honey smiled a big smile.

"That must be it. She seemed kind of sad, didn't she?" Honey remarked.

Mori nodded, "Hidden behind her anger was sorrow."

"We should be friends!" Honey beamed, "We're the same size too!"

He hugged his rabbit to his chest and Mori lifted him onto his shoulders before leaving the athletics hallway to attend their club.

Pandora left the school without looking at any clubs and was left sitting on the steps until her host mother arrived and picked her up with a happy greeting and a hug.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **I actually have a story about an art scholarship student but I like this one better. Prepare for character development all the way! Gogogo. I actually love Pandora's character even though she is a complete asshole most of the time.**

 **I have like, eight chapters of this done. I'll probably do monthly updates because that's typically my time frame due to how busy I get and inspiration and yada yada.**

 **I'm going to be mixing manga and anime stuff since whatever I get from the wiki I trust.**

 **The pairing in my mind for now is Honey, but depending on where Pandora takes herself it can also possibly be either Mori or Kyoya. My goal is Honey though.**


	2. English Partner

**_The Athletics Scholarship Student_**

 _Chapter 2_

 _English Partner_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran because if I did then Tamaki wouldn't be so Tamaki. Pandora is my child._

 _*Italicized words are in English_

* * *

The following day Pandora's day went by in a boring manner that was quite similar to the previous day. The only difference came when she sat down in English. The tables were science lab tables where the desks were long and you sat on stools instead of chairs. Pandora insisted she could sit on a stool perfectly fine but they had a stool with a back brought in for her.

The first day the seat beside her was empty. Today it was occupied by a blonde who was hardly taller than Pandora herself and she wanted to punch the kid.

The class began with some notes and she could feel the blonde watching her as she followed slowly in Japanese with her right hand. English was a joke for her and she was using the class to further her Japanese. Unfortunately writing in a new system with an unfamiliar hand was hard for her.

 _I'm good at adapting in fights_ , Pandora told herself, _I can do this too_.

The teacher encouraged talking to your desk partner for the last ten minutes based off a topic from the weekly topic board. They were mainly introductory things since it was assumed someone may not know their desk partner the first week of school.

" _What's your name_?" the blonde asked cheerfully and fluently, " _My name is Mitsukuni Haninozuka but everyone calls me Honey!_ "

" _Pandora Jones_." Pandora answered shortly.

Not to be deterred by her mood, Honey continued, " _What's your favorite sport_?"

Pandora eyed the conversation board for a moment and found sports and favorites as two options. She internally cursed the teacher.

" _I hate everything_." was her angry response.

" _That's silly! You were looking at the board yesterday-_ "

Pandora cut Honey off, " _Drop it._ "

Honey eyed the girl in front of him with eyes that betrayed him. They definitely conveyed to her that he wasn't the bright and cheerful little boy everyone else seemed to find him. They showed intelligence.

" _Ladies shouldn't use words like you did yesterday_." Honey remarked and Pandora abruptly stood.

" _Sit somewhere else tomorrow or else_." Pandora almost spat, grabbing her bag with her right arm and swinging it over her shoulder before taking her cane and struggling towards the door.

Honey called after her with an innocent voice, " _Or else what_?"

Pandora paused. Her shoulders shook for a moment. Her left hand twitched.

She looked over her shoulder with her beautiful eyes turning into an angry ocean, " _I'll wreck your shit_."

A few of the other students looked a bit confused by her words since they didn't cover slang while some looked shocked and horrified. The teacher hadn't heard from his desk and was blissfully ignorant to what was being said.

" _Like you could_." a girl laughed from beside Pandora, looking down her long nose at the redhead, " _You couldn't take Honey even if you tried, cripple_."

" _I could break your beak nose instead, bitch_." Pandora retorted, tapping her cane in a threatening manner. The girl was absolutely livid. She stood and pushed Pandora backwards, jabbing a finger into her chest. Pandora's body screamed at her.

Duck and weave. Take her down with a leg sweep. Step to the right and get through her guard. Break her little finger and _destroy her_.

Pandora's body couldn't do any of it, anymore. She couldn't make a fist with her left hand and her right shoulder wasn't completely healed. Neither leg could do what it had to, she couldn't even bend her right one.

The girl's friend snatched Pandora's cane and the beak nosed bitch sneered, " _What are you going to do about this, cripple? You can't do anything_."

The teacher, only just now looking up, only saw Pandora fall. He didn't see the girl shove her and kick her right leg to get her to fall. He didn't see her friend drop the cane as if she never had it and he didn't see Pandora's eyes burning in anger while her face flushed with shame.

Pandora landed in a front slap-out, saving her from any damage other than the burning in the leg the girl kicked. She went to push herself up like she had done many times after training to take a hit, but her arms shook so badly she couldn't do a simple push up.

 _Everything's been taken from me_ , Pandora thought as the teacher nearly hurdled the desk to get to her, _how could I have fallen this far_?

The teacher reached her, " _Are you alright, Miss Jones_?"

" _I'm fine. I just tripped. Stupid leg brace, am I right_?" Pandora laughed it off coldly. The teacher did most of the work in lifting her up because she couldn't bend her right leg at all.

As she put weight on her right leg she felt the tentative give and realized how far that little fall could have set her back. She looked at her leg with wide, pain filled eyes. Bodily pain was nothing to her but as her eyes set on the leg that could have been made of paper mache for all it could do, Pandora felt her eyes gloss over.

She grabbed her cane and hurried out and ignored her leg screaming at her. Instead of going to pottery Pandora went and hid in the storage room in the gym. She looked at her right leg and she held back a scream as she struck the punching bag she was laying on. She hit it again and again, taking her anger out. Finally her hand couldn't take it anymore and she couldn't force it into a fist again.

How she longed for a fight again. She wanted to feel the adrenaline as she shrugged off devastating hits from other professionals and KOed a person the first thirty seconds into the first round.

" _I wish I could die_." she uttered softly, " _It's not worth living if I can't even get up after falling by myself_."

Outside, Honey leaned against the door. He had been there since he heard someone going on a rampage against one of the bags and he had immediately known who it was.

Mori nodded to Honey as he passed with the rest of the boys gym class. Honey didn't leave and he listened as anger turned into sorrow and sobs echoed in the storage room.

Pandora left and went to meditation and traditional culture before spending her free period with the headmaster, looking at the club listings for the entire school. He had highlighted the ones she could participate in with her physical ability.

Her eyes lingered on the sports clubs and the headmaster didn't say anything as her eyes misted up and she wiped her eyes into her elbow. She took the list and told him she'd go investigate all the clubs and see which interested her.

When club hours began she visited many of the clubs and it wasn't until about three-thirty when she found herself standing outside Music Room Three. Pandora wasn't sure if she should knock or not but figured that since the club had been going for awhile already it would be rude to disturb them. As she opened the large doors with some trouble she swore pink roses floated out at her but there wasn't any evidence of actual roses.

The light blinded her but when she stepped in and quietly closed the door she found a rather pleasant setting. There were several areas where girls were seated, chatting with the "hosts" of the Host Club. As her eyes drifted over each group she was approached by a tall raven haired individual.

"Can I help you, miss?" he inquired politely.

Pandora nearly jumped but shook her head, "No, I apologize for intruding. I'm a foreign exchange student so I'm just observing all the clubs."

"I understand. Would you like a tour of our club, Jonzu-san?" he asked before he was already walking away. Pandora followed despite being highly concerned he already knew her name.

"The Host Club's here to entertain all who come each day with activities that can change daily. We have several types available to be entertained by." the young man explained quickly and efficiently, before gesturing to each table.

"The Princely type," he gestured towards a blonde teenager who had the four central couches as his area and each was filled to the brim with girls that were swooning over him.

"The Little Devil types," here he gestured to a bit of a spectacle where identical gingers were hanging off each other, much to the apparent pleasure of the girls sitting with them.

"I am the Cool type," he gestured to an empty area with a laptop and several notebooks on a table.

"And finally the Wild type and the Loli-Shota type." Here, Pandora nearly slipped off her cane. Sitting at a populated low table with it filled with sweets like cake and cookies was Honey and his tall friend.

As if he knew he was being looked at, Honey looked up.

He brightened when he saw her and called, "Pan-chan!"

Pandora looked around when she heard the name and then realized it was directed at her. She glared at the cheerful small boy and she gave a quick head bow to the Cool type.

"I apologize again for intruding, but the club doesn't seem to be for me. I'm not very social." Pandora apologized.

He nodded, "Of course, Jonzu-san."

As Pandora left, Honey left behind her. She was halfway down the hall when he caught up to her.

"Pan-chan, wait!"

Pandora in fact did not stop and she increased her hobbling speed. Honey easily caught up to her though and she turned as sharply as she could when he was behind her.

Honey stopped so that her long hair didn't catch him in the face. Pandora yelled, "What do you want! And what is Pan-chan!?"

"I'm sorry for what happened today in English." Honey apologized. He got to his knees and bowed stiffly and low, "Inao-chan and Touka-chan are visitors of mine and Takashi's at the Host Club. They were trying to defend me."

" _Oh, you're sorry, are you_?" Pandora snarled.

She turned and stalked over to the wall and slammed her good fist into it, " _You and every other goddamn person are sorry! Everyone's sorry when they see a fucking cripple!_ "

"Pan-chan-"

" _Don't call me that! I don't want anything to do with you, so don't give me some kind of nickname_!" Pandora nearly howled. She turned and put her back to the wall before she slid down to the floor. Her eyes burned into Honey's.

"Pandora-chan," Honey remedied, "I would like to be your friend."

Pandora growled when she looked up and saw him looking at her with the innocence of a child. She found she hated this boy and everything he seemed to be. How dare someone be happy and clueless when she herself was so miserable where death was preferable to life.

" _No. I don't like you. Leave me alone_." Pandora looked away.

Honey decided to leave it at this. Clearly the girl sitting in front of him was so consumed by her own grief she wouldn't accept anything he had to say. He would try again some other time. So Honey walked away and returned to the Host Club where he relayed to Takashi what happened quietly while putting on a smile and enjoying his cake for his viewing guests.

It was a struggle but Pandora used the wall to stand up and she went home. The next day she put her club down as an attendee of the Host Club but didn't go once since that day.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **September update yay! I figured I might as well do beginning of the month updates.**

 **I would appreciate reviews because I'm not very good with humor characters and I'm trying my hardest to keep to character. Honey is especially hard for me and I get much better with him in later chapters.**

 **Thank you to the following for reviewing (:**

 **Mamabug  
** **AnimeFan1980**


	3. Small Friend

**The Athletics Scholarship Student**

 _Chapter 3_

 _Small Friend_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran, but if I did, there would be more Kyoya and Mori_

 _*Italicized words are English_

* * *

A month after the first day of school, there was the shattering of a vase in the Host Club. This started the first chapter in the princely host Suoh Tamaki's romantic life while a pair of eyes that could be a calm sea or a raging storm haunted Honey's dreams.

He wasn't romantically interested in Pandora, not quite yet. Honey was more interested in being her friend because clearly she needed one. It was during the physical exams that Pandora once again was involved in Honey's life.

Honey found his eye caught on long fiery red hair that seemed to glow against everyone else in the room. Pandora was a few people in front of him and was doing a good job of ignoring the spectacle behind her that the Host Club was creating.

Pandora was off in her own world, wondering what the doctors could possibly have to say about her. That is until a nasally voice drew her out.

"Look who it is, Touka-chan." Pandora looked over her shoulder to find the rather nasty beak nosed bitch who pushed her over a month ago.

Touka giggled, "It's the cripple, Inao-chan!"

"Still picking fights you can't win, little girl?" Inao asked, looking down at Pandora like she was a bug.

' _Still picking fights, Pandora? Good thing you're a real fighter._ ' a voice echoed in her head. But she forced it away. The past was the past and there was nothing she could do to change it.

Pandora went to reply but her name was called and she went into her physical exam, but not before reminding the girls, "When I heal, you'll regret crossing me."

When I heal, Pandora thought as the specialized doctor just for her helped her change and removed her brace to take a look at her leg.

What a load of bullshit, when I heal? More like never, Pandora found herself thinking as the doctor frowned at her leg. She moved on to the rest of her and gave her a general checkup.

"Your injuries are about the same as they were last month, Jonzu-san. When's your next appointment at the hospital for a real checkup?" inquired the doctor.

Pandora thought about it, "Next week."

Pandora was released but as she went to go to English someone shoved her against a wall. Her body responded immediately but she was too frail now and too weak to be able to toss the person like she had instinctively tried to.

"Don't threaten me, cripple." hissed Inao into Pandora's ear, "Or I'll make sure you never heal."

Pandora threw her head back and there was a crunch and Inao yelled as her hands went to her nose. Pandora lifted her cane for defense and snarled, "Fight me if you want to die."

Touka grabbed Pandora's cane and, as she had naturally tried to use her left hand, the grip couldn't hold it and Touka had Pandora's cane. Pandora readied her fists in front of her and Inao grabbed Pandora's hair, yanking her forwards.

"You're in for it now! No one's going to save you!" she slammed Pandora into the wall and for a moment, Pandora was remembering the sensation of her head hitting the cement after the car has tossed her into the air.

Inao ripped her head forward and her nails pressed into Pandora's face as she grabbed her with her other hand.

"I'm the boss here, bitch." Inao told her, "You can't even stand if I let go of you right now."

Pandora wanted to refute her claim but everything was true. If Inao let go of her then she would collapse because her right leg couldn't hold her full weight.

Inao let go and Pandora let herself fall to the left. She fell correctly onto her side and glared up at Inao. She laughed and started to walk away. Touka dropped her cane just out of her reach and followed her friend.

Pandora reached for her cane but found it was useless. She used her left leg to help her arms drag her and she slid over to the wall to help herself up. When she was standing she found Mori and Honey watching her.

"What? Never seen a cripple fall?" she spat.

"You have ouchies on your face." Honey pointed out to her rather cheerfully.

Pandora ran her hand across her face and just now noticed the stinging. She pulled her hand back and stared at the red stains.

Honey lifted Pandora's bag and smiled when Pandora went to yell at him, "Don't worry Pandora-chan, I'm just going to bring you to the infirmary!"

"No. It's occupied by the exams. I refuse." Pandora huffed.

"Then I know somewhere we can find disinfectant and band-aids." Honey didn't back down and Pandora found herself following Honey after Mori left to go let their English teacher know where they were.

When they reached the athletics hallway Pandora understood. She eyed the trophies as they passed then paused when they reached an area of the martial arts awards.

"You..." Pandora whispered.

Honey stopped to look over his shoulder. He followed her eyes to the part of the wall that was dedicated to all his wins over the years in Ouran. Several pictures of him with trophies stared back and some of those trophies sat in the trophy case below it.

Pandora's head dropped and her hair fell over her face. Her mouth couldn't seem to find what it wanted to fall into, a scowl or a gape.

Pandora looked up as her mouth finally settled into a firm hateful glower, " _You're a master in the martial arts. You._ "

Pandora had to lean against the wall and her eyes continuously flashed between looking like she was going to kill someone or cry. She was clearly too tired to be as angry as her shaking body was, so tears welled up in her eyes.

" _It's not fair._ " she uttered, " _Why did I lose everything, and yet you still have it_?"

Honey tilted his head to the side as Pandora pushed her hair back. He realized where he had seen her before. A headline flashed in front of his eyes. Professional Fighter Hospitalized: Never to Fight Again.

Pandora suddenly took her cane and broke it on herself. Honey hurried forward to stop her when she went to hurt herself with the sharp broken end, " _Stop! Pan-chan_!"

 _"What do you know!_ " she snarled as tears dripped from her eyes, " _You haven't lost it! You can still fight and move! I've lost everything! Everything_!"

" _Fighting isn't everything, Pan-chan_." Honey insisted. They fought for control. Her arms were shaking, her entire body was shaking. She was leaning against the wall and thats all that was keeping her up at this point.

" _Fighting is my life_!" Pandora cried, " _It was everything to me! My friend, my family, my passion, my true love! Without it, I'm nothing! I was the best! I was undefeated and I would never be defeated! Now some weak bitch pushes me and I can do fuck nothing about it!_ "

Honey gained control and he pushed forward, wrapping his arms around Pandora in a hug. She tried to fight it but he dragged her away from the wall so that she had to use him to lean on or else she'd fall.

" _I'm your friend, Pan-chan_." Honey insisted, " _I'll be your friend. You don't need to constantly be fighting everything._ "

" _What do you know! You're rich and you can move independently._ " Pandora slipped through Honey's arms and she landed with her legs a bit awkward but otherwise alright. She was able to sit herself up and she looked at Honey with tears still falling.

Honey knelt down beside her, " _Pan-chan, you need to be strong_."

Pandora immediately switched gears and was back to anger, " _Are you saying I'm not strong!_?"

"There's the Pan-chan I was looking for." Honey said cheerfully, helping her up. He led her over to a bench outside the gymnasium and he retrieved duct tape from the confused gym teacher who looked at Pandora and immediately went to get her first aid kit. Honey was duct taping Pandora's cane back together while she watched, her eyes clear now.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she finally asked.

"I like being nice to people. Besides, you're small like me. I want to be friends!" Honey's serious side seemed to evaporate almost immediately and Pandora scoffed and looked away.

She admitted, "I guess being friends with a guy as short as me wouldn't be so bad."

"Great! Pan-chan, do you like cake?" Honey bounced in place as he finished her cane and tested it out to see if it could hold his own weight. When it could he handed it off to Pandora.

Pandora shook her head, "I keep to a strict diet. That means no cake or any sweets for me."

Honey looked like he just watched someone kick his bunny. He sniffled, "How could someone just not eat cake? That's so mean!"

Pandora shrugged. She hadn't eaten cake since she was very young and couldn't remember the taste anyway. It wasn't that much of a big deal, she did enjoy the food her nutrition plan detailed.

The gym teacher returned and they disinfected her face before she and Honey returned to English with Pandora's cuts cleaned and hardly noticeable. When she walked in with Honey, Inao gave Pandora a nasty look that promised trouble. Pandora just returned it with a grin that welcomed the challenge.

Honey sat beside Pandora that day, as he would for many to come afterwards.

* * *

 **AN**

 **October update is on time. Oh yeah! Kind of short but next month is a very long chapter.**

 **I love Pandora. She's an asshole but she isn't the worst asshole.**

 **Thanks to the following for reviewing (:**

 **meow333333  
AnimeBunnyLover  
Kiki's Stories Of Awesomeness**


	4. Hollywood Action

**The Athletics Scholarship Student**

 _Chapter 4_

 _Hollywood Action_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran, but if I did, then Renge wouldn't exist_

 _*Italics are English or indicate Pandora's flashbacks_

* * *

Pandora actually started visiting the Host Club after the physical exams but didn't participate much as a guest. She more so sat off to the side and she actually sat with the Cool type who she learned was named Ootori Kyoya. She gradually learned each host's name including the new host, the Natural type, Fujioka Haruhi.

Honey and she were school friends more than anything else. Pandora didn't share much with Honey, who did the same to her. She found his changing personality off putting because for one minute he could be having a serious conversation with her, then change into his Loli-Shota type in the blink of an eye when talking to one of the girls who visited. It was terrifying.

"Would you be interested in any merchandise, Pandora-san?" Kyoya inquired, breaking Pandora out of her thinking. She eyed his laptop page where he had several bids going for items the hosts owned.

Pandora wrinkled her nose, "Why would I want... Tamaki-senpai's pencil?"

"What about Honey-senpai's eraser?" Kyoya tried, clearly not actually interested in trying to get her to buy it.

"No thanks. I already end up with candy that he sneaks into my bag to try and get me out of my diet." Pandora rolled her eyes thinking about how everyday in pottery she would find Honey had stuck several various candies in her bag at some point during English.

Kyoya hummed and returned to focusing on his laptop. Pandora looked up when there was an unusual commotion by the doorway. Tamaki was involved, as usual, so she looked back down at the homework she had been doing and zoned out on until Kyoya interrupted her daydreaming.

Kyoya looked up and then stood up to go investigate what the twins and Tamaki were causing. The next time Pandora looked up, there was a girl hanging off Kyoya causing an even bigger scene that had all the hosts watching plus the rest of the visitors slowly leaving while staring. It was nearing the end of hosting hour anyway, so Pandora figured she should pack up soon.

"And you!" Pandora was shocked when suddenly the girl slammed her hands down on the table. Pandora pulled Kyoya's laptop away from the edge in case the girl decided to do that again and send it off the table on accident.

"Can I help you?" Pandora inquired, ice hanging off her words.

The girl, with a big bow in her hair that made Pandora already dislike her, hissed, "What are you doing with my Kyoya-sama?"

Sama? Pandora thought, okay then...

"Your Kyoya-sama." Pandora repeated, looking at Honey and Mori. Mori nodded gravely, letting her know she heard that and translated it correctly.

"Yes, my Kyoya-sama! How dare you take his precious time up like the way you are!" the girl reminded Pandora of a chihuahua dog. So she stood up and came out from the table. The girl was a bit put off by her height and she actually looked a bit guilty when she saw Pandora grab her cane.

Pandora narrowed her eyes at her, "I don't like your attitude. Who are you, anyway?"

"Houshakuji Renge!" she announced brightly, "Kyoya-sama is my prince charming!"

Pandora looked at the rest of the hosts. Tamaki seemed to be crying himself a river on the floor and Pandora assumed it was this girl's doing.

"I see." Pandora nodded, "Well, as great as it is meeting you, I'm going to leave now."

"Wait! You're not after my Kyoya-sama, right?" Renge pushed.

Pandora firmly replied, "Absolutely not."

She hobbled towards the door, complimented the hosts on their cosplay of kimonos that day, and promptly left while slamming the door behind her

The next day, Honey, Mori and Pandora walked to the Host Club with Pandora painfully discussing kendo with Mori. Her body itched to actually perform the sport but she was enjoying discussing it with Mori. She found she liked Mori. He described everything he needed efficiently and with as little words as possible.

When they got there they started to set up while Pandora sat on the couch and continued to debate with Mori over kendo. Honey jumped into the conversation every so often to add his own thoughts.

When the entire club gathered, they discussed what to do with Renge.

"Buh, lady manager?" Pandora choked, "I'm not part of the club, but isn't the club males only?"

"You're part of it." Kyoya answered, stopping what he was doing on his laptop to look at her. Pandora raised her eyebrow and Kyoya turned his laptop around, revealing a line graph of each member's profits.

"What did you sell of mine?" Pandora demanded, slamming her right hand on the table and leaning over as if to tackle him. Kyoya clearly didn't care because the time it would take the cripple to get over the table he'd be out the door.

Kyoya merely gave his usual smirk, "Autographs. You were a professional fighter, after all."

Pandora rocketed backwards, eyes wide. Honey looked at Pandora with careful eyes while the Host Club quieted and stared. Pandora wasn't helping Kyoya with paperwork anymore, that was for certain.

"You were a professional fighter?" asked one of the Hitachiin twins. Pandora didn't care enough to figure out which one.

Pandora nodded slowly, "Yeah. I... was."

"Guys let's talk about something else. Clearly Pandora-san isn't happy talking about this." Haruhi pointed out. Nearly everyone glanced at her leg brace and cane before trying to get back to Renge. Pandora leaned back into the couch and Mori looked down at her to make sure she wasn't dead. When he was satisfied with her state of breathing he turned back to the conversation.

"Anyway, as I was saying!" Tamaki began in full, "Renge will be good for Haruhi! Instead of having just these two ruffians!" He pointed the twins who both looked affonted at the suggestion they were ruffians, "And her, she'll have a feminine friend!"

Pandora paused, "Haruhi's a girl?"

Tamaki fell over while Kyoya pushed up his glasses in irritation.

"You didn't know, Pan-chan?" Honey asked, eyes wide.

Pandora shook her head, "I assumed she was a feminine boy."

"Well, now that you know we must ask you keep it a secret." Kyoya sighed, "Haruhi still owes a debt, after all."

"She broke a vase." Hitachiin Hikaru added, his brother Kaoru sagely nodding, "One too expensive for a commoner to pay for easily."

"Stop calling people commoners!" Haruhi scolded lightly.

Tamaki was revived, "Yes! Yell at them, my dear daughter!"

Pandora looked very disturbed but she nodded to Kyoya who caught it with a vague smile.

Suddenly the door started to open and the topic fell as a feminine voice called out, "Hello everyone! I brought cookies I made!"

Honey was on his feet before Renge was even in the door but Tamaki was already at the door. Pandora praised the man's speed. He was an idiot but he was clearly fast and perfectly fit and healthy.

"Look! How ladylike! Why frankly, I'm moved!" Tamaki cried, gesturing towards Renge who looked at Tamaki like he was a bug beneath her feet.

"They're not for you, phony prince." she uttered blankly. Tamaki wilted to the floor and Pandora coughed down a laugh and looked away. She stared when she realized Mori had left the couch without her even realizing it. He must have followed Honey. She was honestly amazed with some of the abilities the hosts showed.

"They're a little burnt, but I know what you're going to say Kyoya-sama!" Renge swooned, holding out the cookies for Kyoya to observe. As Renge clearly was imagining Kyoya doing something, Pandora decided probably something naughty from the way she was acting, Honey took one of the cookies.

He eyed it, "You're right. These are burnt."

Mori almost materialized behind Honey and lifted the cookie out of his hand, "No, Mitsukuni. These are bad for you."

Renge heard that and snarling, she was after the two. Both started running and the cookie basket ended up on the table as Renge darted after them. Haruhi and Pandora looked at the slightly blackened cookies and Haruhi took one. She stuck the end of it in her mouth and tasted it.

"Not too bad. Kind of savory." Haruhi announced thoughtfully, chewing on the end and holding out the basket for Pandora to try one. Pandora shook her head.

"Sorry, athletes diet. Nothing sweet." Pandora denied them.

Honey could be heard in the background crying, whether it was Pandora's declaration or Renge chasing him she wasn't sure.

Pandora blinked as she observed Haruhi and made a discreet face rubbing motion. Haruhi returned the blink, confused. Behind Haruhi the twins shared a grin and both sidled up to either side of the poor brunette.

One twin, Kaoru Pandora guessed, put the cookie back in Haruhi's mouth and took a bite of it. Hikaru licked the crumbs Pandora had motioned for Haruhi to wipe off her face.

"Guys there's more cookies here. You don't need to do that." Haruhi complained, wiping her face while the twins shared another look.

Tamaki rushed over from where he had been crying, "No! You're supposed to scold them harshly and tell them to never do it again!"

Haruhi, her face cupped tightly between Tamaki's hands, requested, "Please stop sexually harassing me, Senpai."

Pandora snorted. She watched Kyoya rile Tamaki up beforehand about the situation. Pandora wasn't the only one observing. Renge had quit chasing Mori and Honey and was watching with a thoughtful expression. Then it was like a light bulb had gone on above her head as soon as Honey had offered the girl some milk with his cuteness act going tenfold.

"Tepid!" she screamed, and everyone paused from their respective act of comedy to stare, "All your characters aside from Kyoya-sama's are too lackluster!"

"Really?" Pandora questioned, "They're all pretty insane."

Renge ignored her in favor of pointing down at Honey, "You're too soft!" She pointed to Haruhi, "Too passive!" and the twins, "Too mischievous!" then Mori, "Too quiet!" and lastly, to Tamaki, "You're all wrong!" Tamaki cried.

Renge pointed to Pandora, "Why are you even here?"

"Good question. I think this is where I leave." Pandora agreed, standing up and grabbing her cane to leave before she got too involved in whatever shenanigans she was sure this crazy girl was about to start.

"No! You're perfect! We need everyone to have dark sides!" Renge announced before beginning a tangent that Pandora only caught half of since her Japanese translating was only so fast, "You guys are too soft! If you keep going on like this everyone's going to get bored of you! You need a dark side, something to keep them interested! Or are you trying to ruin Kyoya-sama's precious business?! You all need your character backgrounds reworked and I, as your manager, will change them for you!"

Pandora cocked her head to the side, "Eh?"

Renge eyed each of the hosts, all who had converged to stand together. Pandora had slowly sunk into the couch, hoping to be forgotten. As Renge's caramel eyes ran over each host she pointed her finger at Honey and shouted, "You!"

Honey looked genuinely scared and tears that Pandora honestly couldn't tell if they were real or not were gathering in his eyes as he clung to Mori's arm, "If all you are is cute then you're just a big baby! As of now, you're the 'Cute Face Who's Actually a Thug!'"

Pandora pushed her face into the plush couch to muffle her snickers.

"Morinozuka-senpai, you're the 'Childhood Friend Flunkie'!"

"The twins will be basketball players shut up in their own world!"

"Haruhi-kun, you're an honors student being bullied!"

As Pandora nearly died laughing, she did notice each host had their own reaction to their new characters. Haruhi had looked far more worried before she actually got her title, then looked like she couldn't care while the twins were actually looking at each other seriously. Honey looked on the verge of tears while Mori was patting his head, not giving any care to the situation at all.

"And Tamaki-san! You are the school idol with an inferiority complex." Renge looked so serious about this Pandora had to turn around and not look. She supposed while she hadn't been very pleased at coming here every day, especially early when she didn't actually do anything for the club, this was making up for it.

As if forgetting about Kyoya, Renge suddenly turned on a dime and clapped her hands together, looking up at Kyoya with a big smile, "Oh! And Kyoya-sama, you're perfect. You just stay your usual kind, affectionate self."

Kyoya fixed his tie, smiling in amusement, "I'm honored."

Pandora snorted and to Haruhi, questioned, "Kind? Affectionate? His dark side is his regular self."

Haruhi giggled and Renge suddenly turned, pointing at Pandora and advancing towards the couch. Pandora had the perfect 'Oh fuck' expression painted across her face.

"And you! I still don't know your name but you are going to be a foil to each of them!" Renge crossed her arms, nodding, "Yes I can see it now! The bullied cripple who fights back," Pandora twitched, "The coach who can no longer play but hangs onto their love forever," Pandora's eyes seemed to darken into a stormy sea, "A lonely outcast who doesn't know how to make friends!"

Pandora started to lift her cane and Mori swiftly removed it from her person. Pandora glared. Before she could kill Renge, suddenly the lights dimmed as a spotlight came onto Tamaki.

"Yes..." he murmured gleefully, "The lonesome prince is perfect for me!"

Haruhi leaned over to Pandora, "That's probably the one she got the most wrong."

Pandora sighed and Haruhi gave her a questioning look until she saw the shaking that the redhead's arm was doing involuntarily.

"She hit the nail on the head, didn't she?" Haruhi whispered.

Pandora frowned, "Somehow."

The twins begged Kyoya to stop this but as the club's president, Tamaki, was very into it, Kyoya fully amused wouldn't do anything. Tamaki started to perfect his lonesome prince and Pandora and Haruhi watched, both making similar faces of exasperation that the twins quickly mirrored as well.

"Well let's just see how it goes. Something interesting will come out of it, I bet." Kyoya said, a hand to his chin as he thought. Pandora rolled her eyes at him.

"Kyoya-senpai," she informed him, "Your eyes are seeing dollar signs."

"We use yen, Pandora." Kyoya replied easily.

"That's your name?" Renge was suddenly beside Kyoya again, "Pandora? Like Pandora's box?"

Pandora looked pained, "Yes, my parents were fond of myths and named us after Greek mythology."

"You have siblings?" Honey inquired, smiling brightly at the prospect of more Pandora's running around.

Pandora looked even more pained but nodded, "I have an older sister. Nike."

"Like... the brand?" one of the twins asked.

"Please stop asking. Can we move on?" Pandora requested.

And move on they did. The following day, Pandora was amazed that Renge had brought an entire film crew. Haruhi, clearly as amazed as Pandora, was also watching as Renge and the director went after perfection in each shot.

The twins had a dramatic story with a close up that panned downwards on Pandora and emphasized her leg brace and cane as she acted as their coach, pushing the basketball players forward.

During the filming, Pandora had frequent flashbacks to her own matches. When Kaoru was injured in his scene with Hikaru and he doing their brotherly love bit, Pandora wasn't at the film set anymore.

 _She was laying on the floor after getting a particularly nasty roundhouse kick to the head from a man twice her size after the round ended and she let her guard down to return to her corner of the ring. It was a cheap shot but both were undefeated and this guy didn't want to lose to a little girl._

 _"Pandora!" a familar voice was yelling as she was coming in and out of consciousness, "Pandora!"_

 _Someone was climbing over the rope to get to her, tears streaming down his face, "Pandora no!"_

 _"Pandora! Pan-_ dora! Pan-chan!"

Then she was pulled back when Honey was trying to offer her a water bottle, "Pan-chan?"

"Sorry Honey-senpai. Thank you." Pandora accepted the water and took a greedy gulp to wash away the feeling in her belly.

When Tamaki's scene came Pandora was incredibly impressed he was able to focus and actually act well for it. It seemed while Tamaki was an extreme goofball, he wasn't a stupid goofball all the time.

"Suoh-senpai," Pandora's line went, "At least you're everyone's idol. No one likes me."

Pandora briefly wondered why Renge was even putting her in this as they set up for Haruhi and Honey's shot. Pandora had gone through two water bottles at this point and was on to a third.

"Why are you drinking so much water?" Haruhi inquired as Pandora screwed the lid back on to her nearly empty third bottle.

Pandora shrugged, a sad smile at her lips, "The twin's scene reminded me of something that happened. Thomas always wanted me to drink lots of water and stay healthy."

"Tomasu?" Haruhi questioned, butchering the attempt on the name.

"Close enough." Pandora demurred.

When Pandora heard Honey's lines, they had to redo the scene again because Pandora's laughter overtook his speech on the audio.

"I'm sorry!" Pandora huffed in amusement when the director screeched at her to stop laughing, "But Honey looks, eto, etoooo, adorable! Adorable in the rain with his hair like that. It doesn't fit what he's saying. And, and 'don't make me take you over my knee again' he says to Mori-senpai? How does that work?"

The second time, when Honey got through his lines, immediately afterwords when Pandora began her line for it ("I have a cane and I"m not afraid to use it." Much to her bitter amusement) Honey burst into tears and tackled both Haruhi and Pandora, crying that he couldn't do it and it was too mean.

"Man, Honey-senpai, where's the guy who whipped me into shape? Huh?" Pandora asked as she awkwardly pat his head to get him to stop crying.

Honey sniffled, "I don't like being mean to my friends!"

"Fair enough." Pandora replied, "But get off. You forget I'm smaller than you."

"And you're crippled!" quipped Hikaru.

Pandora snarled at him and Honey didn't let go for a minute to let Hikaru get away without Pandora breaking her cane over his head.

"Stick to the script!" Renge came charging over and Haruhi and Pandora took the chance to grab some towels and head over to where Hikaru had fled. Pandora, cooled off about what he said by now, sat on the steps below the brothers and Kyoya.

"Why did we go from changing our backgrounds to making a movie?" Kaoru inquired.

Pandora snorted, "Because she's insane and managed to get an entire film crew here."

"She rushed them from Hollywood, I believe." Kyoya added, eyeing his little black book and pausing only to smile at them when they all stared in disbelief, "The director directed Millenial Snow that was number one in the American box office last year."

"Eh. It was better than Twilight, at least." Pandora demurred while Haruhi swore "These damn rich people," and Pandora felt inclined to agree with her, "I'm a bit of a movie conniseur when I'm not training."

Hikaru muttered to Kaoru, "It's not like you can train now."

" _You're a rude little fuckface, aren't you_?" snarled Pandora. Hikaru jumped and both twins, who weren't that good enough in English to understand that looked at her hopelessly.

Pandora tried to translate but she wasn't very good in stringing together curses in Japanese yet, "You're a rude fucker of faces, aren't you?"

"I believe she's trying to swear at you because you're attacking her weakness." Kyoya commented. Pandora glared.

"It is pretty rude." Haruhi agreed, "You're insulting something that clearly hurts her and you're adding salt to the wound."

"Sorry." Kaoru was the one to apologize after a minute.

Pandora scoffed, "Everyone's sorry when you're a cripple. You'll really be sorry when one day, everything's taken from you too."

"That was rude too, Pandora. Apologize." Haruhi demanded. Pandora rolled her eyes at Haruhi.

" _Sorry for being a bitter fucking cripple_." Pandora stood up and stormed off as best as she could.

As she stalked off, their conversation started with more words Pandora didn't know yet which pissed her off even more. She cooled off for a bit and started coming back when she noticed Renge and Haruhi with two students who looked like they were from the lower classes that Pandora had learned were filled with Yakuza students.

Pandora started to hobble over and that's when one of them pushed Renge. Thats when Pandora learned she could push her limits. She didn't realize it but she started to run as best she could and without asking she grabbed the arm of the one that had pushed Renge and locked his wrist and brought him to the ground.

His friend went to help but Pandora looked up between the strands of her still wet hair and the dangerous look in her stormy eyes stopped him in his tracks while her low voice was more of a growl than anything else, "Move one step and I break his wrist like a twig."

When Tamaki rounded the corner and saw Haruhi with a tear in her eye he grabbed the standing guy and slammed him into a wall. Pandora had known there was strength in this guy and this proved it.

"Wait wait!" the guy in Tamaki's hold cried, "She's the one who started it!"

"All I saw was you push a small girl." Pandora whispered coldly. Everyone stared and she glared, as if to say 'Call me small and you're next'.

"It's true. You can let them go." Haruhi supported them, standing up with a tear still in her eyes.

Pandora, who had locked out his shoulder after his wrist to keep him to the floor, released his arm after using it to push herself up to standing again. She had hardly had to bend, the good thing about her small stature. As soon as Pandora stood she realized she dropped her cane a few feet back and her right leg buckled. She fell back and landed in a slapout to save herself from injury.

Tamaki released the other boy and made a bee line for Haruhi, ignoring Pandora who remarked "Yeah, ignore the poor cripple on the floor who can't get up on her own."

Pandora ignored whatever was going on between Tamaki and Haruhi, because clearly it didn't involve her, although she did keep an ear open and listen because she was a curious person. It immediately turned humorous though and Pandora rolled her eyes.

Never a serious thing with these people, Pandora thought, a bit miffed. She started to roll herself towards the wall so she could use it to get up. When she did the event was over with Haruhi and Tamaki laughing about how her tears had been from her contact falling out and some personal reference Pandora didn't understand.

She blinked at the camera crew that she hadn't seen before while Renge shook with excitement, "Did you get that!?"

"Yes boss!"

And almost anti-climatically Kyoya walked up with a crumpled paper and shoved it into the camera lens. It effectively shattered the camera which led to all the camera workers gasping in horror and it caught the attention of Renge, Haruhi and Tamaki.

"K-Kyoya-sama?" Renge asked, hurt flashing in her eyes.

Kyoya was the one to take Pandora's cane and hand it to her before holding out a hand and helping her up, "I'm terribly sorry but I cannot allow there to be any record of club members engaging in violence."

Once Pandora was up he turned fully to Renge and Pandora was perfectly aware of the heartbreak that was about to occur.

"You're being a pest and I'm extremely displeased."

There was immediate waterworks from Renge and Pandora watched with eyebrows raised. She couldn't think of a single person who could put her to tears like that before her accident.

Renge started to stumble in a quick rant between her tears and Pandora didn't understand a word she said.

Tamaki shook his head when she finished, "That's not who Kyoya is."

Renge turned and looked at Tamaki before falling to her knees and bursting into even more tears. Pandora started to sidle away before Haruhi crouched down beside Renge and gave her some Haruhi wisdom.

"It doesn't matter does it? Even if Kyoya is a little different than what you expected, I think that watching people and getting to know them is the fun part." Haruhi claimed, tilting her head and smiling.

Pandora rolled her eyes at that philosophy and managed to get behind the corner of the building where she hobbled off full speed. When she reached the steps she sat down and just in time.

" _Fuuuuuck_." Pandora leaned her head back and stared up at the sky, " _You hate me up there or something? I try and help someone and you're gonna take my leg further from me, aren't you? Psh, there's a reason I never believed in you_."

Pandora stretched her legs out and looked at her right one. She hated that brace that defined her now. It limited her and now, after trying to help someone, she could tell it wouldn't ever amount to anything.

"What are you thinking about, Pan-chan?" Honey inquired, suddenly sitting beside her. Mori shadowed him and sat on the other side of Honey.

Pandora shrugged, "Nothing."

"That's not what you yelling at the sky says." Honey sang cheerfully.

She rolled her eyes, "You know what I'm thinking about already. My leg's ruined and I'm never going to be able to walk without a cane."

"That's not true." Honey gasped, "You'll heal eventually."

"But never enough to be myself again." Pandora stood up despite the ache in her leg and she hobbled off.

The next week Pandora refused to sit with Kyoya after he sold the videos and everyone believed Pandora was an amazing 'star'.

"It makes me tear up." insisted one of the girls at Haruhi's table, since Honey tried to force feed her cake and right now Inao and Touka were with Honey and giving her the stink eye from across the room.

Another girl agreed, "Putting someone with a disibility as the main character!"

Pandora took it with a smile and as she was leaving, Kyoya pulled her to the side.

"I was right. You were seeing yen." Pandora accused him.

Kyoya smiled, "You may have been. But I have a proposition for you, Pandora."

Pandora tilted her head to the side, "Yeah?"

"You're paying for your tuition here with your champion money but once that runs out, how will you pay?" Kyoya inquired.

Pandora had to sit down. She put her head in her hands.

"How did you find out?" she whispered.

Kyoya looked away, "I did some looking around. It didn't surprise me. Why would Headmaster Suoh keep someone who can't participate in sports on an athletics scholarship? But my proposition. You're a part of the club now, Pandora, and while hosting males would be a profit you aren't the friendliest girl. Unless you make some friends who can be of help then I would like you to continue helping the hosts unless you in particular are requested."

Pandora was silent, "What's the part that's supposed to entice me?"

"The money you make you'll get a fifty percent share of. That doesn't sound like much but all the heiresses put a lot of money into the club and if you can channel some of that, you may be able to pay for another year here." Kyoya explained.

"Why would I want another year here?" Pandora questioned, sighing, "I don't even want to live another year without my body being mine again."

"I'm going to put you down for that as of now. Extra money won't hurt you. Pleasure doing business with you, Pandora." and Kyoya held out a hand for Pandora to shake. She did so and Kyoya made no remark on how weak her grip truly was.

When she went home that day her host mother waved a copy of the video brightly and asked when she had made such nice friends. Pandora was going to kill Kyoya when she saw him again

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Yay long chapter! And November update is on time.**

 **I actually love the chapters that have some come from episodes because they're easy.**

 **Thanks to the following for reviewing (:**

 **Kiki's Stories of Awesomeness  
AnimeBunnyLover**


	5. Just Nope

**_The Athletics Scholarship Student_**

 _Chapter 5_

 _Just Nope_

 _Disclaimer: Shiko and Hajime are of my creation. As is Layla. The rest are not unless previously stated._

 _*Italicized words may be English or Pandora's thoughts (In English)_

* * *

"Pandora?" Haruhi's voice broke Pandora out of her deep thoughts and she turned to find Haruhi wearing girl clothes at the nearby grocery store. She was dressed cutely with a long shirt over jeans and a tank top on over the shirt. The colors were mostly soft and pastel. Haruhi looked very nice in yellow, Pandora thought.

Pandora blinked, "Oh Haruhi. Hello. Are you out shopping?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

Pandora nodded, "I'm with my host mother. She wanted to browse the cold section and sometimes that bothers my joints."

Haruhi turned to look at what Pandora had been intently gazing at. They were standing by the magazine rack and newspaper machine. The newspaper headline for today's paper read 'New Female MMA World Champion: Layla Pierce.

"Lera Pirusu?" Haruhi tried to question, but she stumbled on the name.

"Layla Pierce." Pandora corrected without much concern, "Close enough though. She was my rival, you know. She was starting an undefeated streak after a bad loss to me and we were going to fight for this title."

Haruhi observed the girl in the picture. Her skin was very dark and her hair pulled back into tight cornrows. Her eyes were an angry hazel and the picture was a flattering action shot of her kicking a woman.

"You could beat her." Haruhi said confidently. Pandora blinked and Haruhi gave her a smile, "I'm sure you'll be able to fight her again soon."

"I'm sure I could." Pandora agreed pitifully. Pandora clearly didn't actually agree.

"Oh, who's this Pandora-chan?" a woman asked, bustling up to Haruhi and looking at her, "Oh she's adorable! I recognize you from that little movie, but I didn't know you were a girl!"

Pandora groaned and her hand twitched, "Please stop bringing up that video."

"But it was so cute! I can't wait to meet all your little friends! Bring them over already!" the woman insisted strongly.

She was honestly one of the prettiest women Haruhi had ever seen with pale skin, long jet black hair and eyes that were a deep gray. She looked just like a traditional Japanese woman and if she wore a kimono could easily pull off a geisha look. Haruhi was entranced for a moment before the very bubbly woman turned to face Haruhi completely.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Yamato Shiko. I'm Pandora's host mother!" the woman gave a short bow before throwing an arm around Pandora's shoulders and hugging her close, "You must be Haruhi, correct?"

"Yes, that's me." Haruhi nodded, and Shiko clapped her hands.

Haruhi looked between Shiko and Pandora and was shocked to see Pandora was perfectly relaxed. Clearly the two had bonded since Pandora had gotten here and Shiko seemed to have taken 'host mother' to be an actual mother.

"Well I'll leave you two be. If you need a ride home Haruhi-chan then my husband is picking us up after he's done picking up his paycheck at work." Shiko offered before heading off towards one of the aisles.

Haruhi looked at Pandora who gave Haruhi one of the realest smiles she had ever seen Pandora give, "That's Shiko for you."

"You look like you really like her." Haruhi commented and Pandora nodded.

"Yeah. I do. She and Hajime wanted me even when they heard I was like this." Pandora gestured at her leg rather depressingly, "The agency said I wouldn't get a host because of my condition but Shiko and Hajime demanded me. They said I deserved my chance as much as anyone and they would take me for as long as I decide to stay."

"That's great." Haruhi smiled. They started to walk around the store and Haruhi got her groceries before accepting the ride home from Shiko who insisted and didn't give Haruhi much of a choice to say no.

Hajime was, like Shiko, one of the prettiest people Haruhi had ever seen. He was handsome with dark eyes and the same black hair that Shiko had. His jaw was chiseled but still had a soft look to it and while he wasn't the pale that Shiko was his skin had a refined appearance to it.

"Oh? Did we pick up another kid while I was getting paid?" Hajime joked as Haruhi got in the back with a very pale Pandora. Pandora refused any help, saying she could get into a car perfectly fine thank you very much. She looked very uncomfortable and yanked her seatbelt very tight. When the car started Pandora seemed to shake for a moment before calming herself by staring intently at the back of Hajime's head.

Haruhi gave her address and when they arrived at Haruhi's, she offered to invite them in for tea. Shiko decided this was the perfect opportunity for Pandora to be social.

"Go ahead, Pandora-chan!" Shiko forcefully encouraged, "Go hang out with your friend!"

Pandora, not arguing with the hurricane that was Shiko, got out and Haruhi worried about getting Pandora up the stairs to her apartment.

Pandora rolled her eyes, "What, you think I can't get up stairs? I'm disabled, not entirely crippled. That's why I hate being called a cripple."

Pandora had to take up most of the stair way and she was very slow but she was able to clamber up the stairs while Haruhi followed with an exasperated expression. Pandora was prideful and she wouldn't let Haruhi help her up anyway.

Haruhi let them into her apartment and Pandora leaned herself against the wall while Haruhi made them tea. Pandora apologized for not being much help with carrying groceries or making tea.

"It's fine. You're a guest." Haruhi said, smiling as she and Pandora sipped tea.

Pandora shrugged, "Still. That's why I don't want anyone coming over either. Shiko loves playing host but I don't want to bring my friends into the house and not be able to also host."

"You called us your friends." Haruhi stated, surprise lighting up her face. Pandora blinked before she blushed and looked away. Haruhi was slightly shocked at how Pandora looked when she wasn't glaring and snarling. Her head was kind of round with high cheekbones and a round cute nose. Her face was kind of round until you reached her jaw where it sloped into a sharp chin. With the blush and Pandora looking away, she looked almost like a little girl instead of the tough as nails Pandora Haruhi was used to.

"Yeah. Don't tell any of the guys I said this but you're all pretty cool. I'm glad I met you guys, alright?" Pandora admitted quietly, as if trying to convince herself.

Haruhi smiled and they both sipped at their tea in peace. That is until the door suddenly slammed open and a woman, Pandora debated this one, with long red hair stepped in wearing a floral print dress and heels. Then Pandora realized she was entirely wrong and this was a man.

"Haruhi, I'm home!" he called, stepping out of his heels at the door.

It took him a moment before he saw Pandora. Haruhi greeted him cheerfully as if slamming the door into the wall was a normal entrance for the man, "Welcome home, dad. This is my friend Pandora."

"Pandora-chan, is it?" he walked up to her and took a look at her, marveling at her hair, "I love your hair color. It's natural right? It's such a bright orange compared to say, a ginger or my dyed color."

"Thank you." Pandora, a bit embarrassed but taking the situation in stride, thanked the man.

He seemed to realize he forgot to introduce himself, "I'm sorry! I'm Haruhi's dad! You can call me Ranka, it's my stage name at the tranny bar I work at."

Pandora mouthed 'stage name' and 'tranny bar' before entirely accepting it, "Nice to meet you Ranka-san."

"Just Ranka, dear. I'm so glad Haruhi brought home such a cute friend like yourself!" Ranka settled down at the table and poured himself some tea. He clearly noted the leg brace and cane but didn't say anything.

"So Pandora-chan, how are you and Haruhi friends?" Rank inquired, smiling bright with red painted lips and not a speck of it on his teeth.

Haruhi answered for her, "We're in a club together."

Ranka snapped his fingers, "Oh, you're part of that dastardly Host Club too?"

"You know about the Host Club, dad?" Haruhi inquired in shock.

"Yes! I get phone calls about how you're doing from a lovely young man named Ootori Kyoya-kun. Since you don't let me know what's going on in your life." Ranka brooded for a moment before cheering up, "Oh well! I'm glad that I got to meet your nice friend Pandora-chan."

As they chatted pleasantly, Haruhi looked at the time. She stood up and excused herself to go retrieve the mail. This left Pandora staring blankly at Ranka. Pandora wasn't quite sure what to say.

Ranka smiled and broke the silence, "I apologize if it's a rude thing to ask, but may I ask about your leg, Pandora-chan?"

"It is rude, but I'll answer anyway." Pandora agreed rather bluntly, "I was hit by a drunk driver when I was crossing a cross walk."

"Oh my, that's terrible." Ranka cover his mouth with his hand.

Pandora nodded, "Yeah."

"How have you been coping?" Ranka pushed in, dare Pandora say, a motherly way.

"Honestly? Not well." Pandora didn't say anything further because Haruhi returned with a bright smile. She sat down beside Pandora and put the letters down and pointed to the catalog that she had been eyeing all the way to the low table.

"Look at these coupons! I'm going to have to use these next week, they're great!" Pandora laughed at Haruhi's genuine happiness at getting coupons. Pandora went to leave a bit later and Ranka frowned.

"Do you have someone to pick you up, Pandora-chan?" he asked, looking out the door for an idling car.

Pandora shook her head, "I'll be fine. It's not too far."

"I'll walk you. I insist in fact. A lovely young lady such as yourself shouldn't walk alone in the city. It's dangerous." Ranka announced. Pandora flinched for a moment and Haruhi looked away. Haruhi knew exactly why that hit home with Pandora.

"She used to be a professional fighter." Haruhi stated when Ranka looked at his daughter after Pandora's reaction, "She used to be one of the dangerous things in the city."

Ranka suddenly understood why she wasn't coping well. Her entire life had been rearranged and she was suddenly thrown into a new life without anything that had been pushing her.

"Well, I'll still walk you." Ranka said firmly. He grabbed his purse and he listened when Pandora told him she could get down the stairs on her own. Going down was much faster than going up, Haruhi thought as she watched from the doorway.

When they started walking along the street Ranka kept pace with Pandora. People that passed gave Pandora odd and pitying looks. Ranka received his own fair shares of glances and blatant stares but by now most people in the area had seen him.

"Did they get him?" Ranka asked softly as they crossed a cross walk and like the previous ones, Pandora had urgently double-checked before hurrying across while constantly checking despite the extremely weird looks she got for how she acted.

Pandora shook her head, "Somehow, by the time the trial came the evidence got lost. Despite all the missing records saying he was drunk and guilty he got away with nothing while I lost everything."

Ranka hummed. They made it to a cute two floor house and pressed the buzzer at the gate. Ranka left after Pandora safely made it inside the door. As he walked back Ranka wondered what he would have done if that girl had been Haruhi. How would he react if something happened to his baby girl? If she ended up disabled with her life shattered to pieces by a single mistake?

He didn't know.

Two days later Pandora took one look at the twins, who apparently had a fight that she missed the previous day, and almost walked right back out of the classroom. Someone was behind her though so she was forced to walk inside and take a look at Hikaru and Kaoru who had dyed their hair pink and blue, respectively.

"Why." Pandora asked, looking around the entire classroom and at the ceiling, possibly asking for a sign from above, before looking at blue hair and demanding, "Why?"

"I was tired of looking like him!" both brothers announced at the same time, pointing at the other. Pandora could see the tension between them. If they started physically fighting Pandora thought it would be pretty hilarious but she doubted that. In fact, their bright hair was kind of irritating. So irritating, Pandora felt like fighting them.

"Pink is Hikaru and blue is Kaoru from now on." Pink hair announced pettily.

"Clearly, blue is the better color." Kaoru spoke up nastily. The two's eyes sparked and they took cover on either side of Haruhi before tossing things at each other.

Pandora looked at Haruhi, "If I don't come to the Host Club later assume I killed myself."

Haruhi put her head in her arms. Rolling her eyes Pandora sat behind Haruhi and copied the motion. Her hair got stuck in the chair and she groaned, mostly to the unresponsive Haruhi, "I hate long hair."

The twins stopped throwing things in unison, one remarking, "But you look good with it."

"It's impractical. When I fought I always used to keep it short." Pandora complained, eyeing the two brothers.

"I think she'd look good with shorter hair." the other twin said, purely just to start the fight back up again. Pandora put her head down again and this time didn't look back up until class started.

Lunch was a similar ordeal where Honey attempted to break it up with cake.

"Go with halvsies on the cake and make up, okay?" he announced quite innocently. Pandora wasn't sure if he was faking or not because he had clearly shown before that he was very smart and that he was fully capable of being serious, "Oh but I wanted some too..."

Honey actually made it worse with a muttered rant following which Pandora couldn't make out well enough to translate. In irritation she looked at Haruhi who pulled out her bento, "I kind of just followed them here. I was going to eat in the classroom..."

Pandora had her own bento, "Same."

Both opened their bentos and on either side of them the twins appeared with their own lunches. Kyoya sat across from them while Tamaki was fantasizing by himself while staring at Haruhi and her bento. Mori and Honey sat down with their own lunches, or in Honey's case, dessert.

"Haruhi," Hikaru began obnoxiously, "Switch lunch with me. I ended up getting something I don't like to get something different from Kaoru."

"Pandora-" Kaoru began as he watched Hikaru trade his and Haruhi's lunches without her permission.

Pandora glared at him, "No."

"Please? You won't let me starve, will you?" Kaoru begged as Hikaru smugly made a show of eating from Haruhi's bento. Haruhi, meanwhile, was fantasizing and staring at her own new, and very expensive, meal.

"I will. My lunch is made specifically with my nutrition plan in mind. I can't eat whatever that, " Pandora pointed to the fancy meal that was on Kaoru's tray, "is."

"You can have some of my cake, Pan-chan!" Honey offered a large forkful for her.

Pandora shook her head, "You know very well Honey-senpai-"

She realized Kaoru swapped their lunches. He scooted away from her when she lifted the fork and turned towards him, a storm in her eyes.

"Don't hurt his face." Kyoya advised peacefully, enjoying his own meal.

"I'm only going to rip it off." promised Pandora, "You can sell it when I'm done."

Kyoya weighed the pros and cons, "Pleasure doing business with you, Pandora."

Kaoru surrendered the lunch with not a bite missing. Shortly after Pandora ignored them as they started to throw food. When a dish landed on the side of her head however, Pandora was inclined to end the fight because unlike everyone else in the cafeteria she couldn't just dodge or get under the table. She wouldn't be able to get under the table even if she tried.

Haruhi eyed Pandora and lifted her bento, "I think I'll eat in the classroom anyway."

As Haruhi tiptoed away she heard the sound of Pandora's cane breaking over one of the twins heads. When they returned to the classroom it turned out to be Hikaru who Pandora had broken her cane on. It was duct taped back together and as good as new though when she returned. Her shirt was still stained though her hair and face was clean.

"They obviously don't have anything in my size in the closet in the restrooms." Pandora explained as she sat down in her desk and put away her empty bento.

Hikaru grumbled under his breath, "They don't have new heads either." Pandora heard him.

"Next time you hit me with food you better hope I don't have a sturdier cane." she retorted hotly.

"If you can catch me, cripple." Hikaru snickered. He was clearly baiting her but Pandora's temper was rather easy to spark if one knew her triggers.

Pandora lifted the cane, "I will hit you with this again. I have plenty of duct tape."

When the lunch period ended and they all went to their respective classes Pandora informed Honey she was not going to club unless they wanted her to break her cane over Hikaru's face again. She went home quite content that day.

The next day Haruhi was pretty upset with the twins who wore their hair opposite, Kaoru with pink and Hikaru with blue to trick everyone.

"It was all an act!" huffed Haruhi, "They just wanted to get me to say they could come over!"

"Well you let Pandora into your home! Why not us?" whined Hikaru.

"You're an annoyance, Hikaru." Pandora said as if it were very obvious.

The blue haired boy blinked, "I'm Kaoru, Pandora."

"You can't fool me. Once I hit you I know you for life. You're Hikaru." Pandora informed him. He was mystified until she added with a laugh, "You also still have a visible bump."

"When we're identical you can't tell us apart." Kaoru spoke up, "Right?"

Pandora shrugged, "I don't really try, sorry if that offends you."

The brothers shared a look and found they didn't mind. While Pandora said she didn't try, she had yet to actually get them wrong.

The following day their hair was back to normal and Pandora was ready for a calm day. Unfortunately after using the bathroom during club she found it just wasn't going to be her day.

Waiting outside the bathroom was Inao and Touka, both looking distinctly unimpressed with Pandora. Pandora gripped her cane tight and strutted forward, "Can I help you?"

"You can leave the Host Club alone, cripple." sneered Inao.

Touka nodded vigorously, "They don't need someone to take care of."

Pandora rolled her eyes before lifting her cane up and standing tall with it across her shoulders. Both girls gasped.

"I'm starting to heal." Pandora informed them, pointing the cane at Inao, "And you're going to be in for it."

They left, not wanting a violent confrontation. Pandora immediately set her cane down and leaned on it heavily. It had all been a trick. She hadn't been standing on her right leg at all. She had put all her weight on her poor left leg that felt ready to collapse.

Pandora grit her teeth and moved on, stumbling through the halls.

When she returned to the Host Club she took one look inside and decided this was absolutely not worth it. There was a kid who looked like he belonged in elementary school in a cage. Why was there a kid here? But more importantly, a cage.

A fucking cage.

Why? Why was that there? How had they gotten it there? How long had it been there?

Pandora was absolutely not dealing with this today.

"I'm going home." she turned the fuck around but was stopped by Honey looking adorable in his Arabian cosplay.

Honey pouted, "But we're helping Shiro-chan!"

Pandora pointed to the cage and clarified, "Shiro-chan?"

Honey nodded.

Pandora walked up to the cage and the little boy jumped when he saw her, "Ah a cripple!"

"I'm not a _fucking_ cripple!" snarled Pandora, "I'm disabled but not completely crippled!"

"Fine, a midget then!" and the kid blew a raspberry at her.

She turned to Honey and with a completely straight face stated, "Kill him. That'll solve all his problems."

"Why is Honey-senpai a little kid and Pandora is a midget?" Haruhi questioned as she passed by with a tray of coffee.

The kid respond with a sly grin on his face, "She clearly has a, uhm, very womanly figure."

Translation: She has big boobs.

"Kid if I didn't have to use this cane to walk I'd break it over your head!" Pandora threatened, leaning on the cage while trying to get to him with no success. Her cane was only so long and the cage was rather large.

"Not that that's stopped her from breaking it over my head!" Hikaru grumbled as everyone watched Pandora attempt to reach the nasty child.

By the end of serving time the kid had run out, throwing what Pandora dubbed as a tantrum. She went about trying to help clean up but got shooed away by Haruhi who ordered her to sit down.

"Here's the plan!" Tamaki suddenly announced with a chart from what seemed like nowhere. He unrolled the chart featuring Honey and Pandora in grade school uniforms with Haruhi in her middle school one. Pandora stared at the chart without blinking and Honey waved a hand in front of her face.

"Nope." Pandora hobbled to the door, "Nope. I'm out. See you tomorrow."

Tamaki cried, "But Pandora-chan!"

"Nope."

Pandora couldn't be swayed and she went home not caring about the little kid named Shiro who Pandora personally thought could use a real personality change. And maybe some cold hard discipline.

 _Like you got?_ Her mind whispered to her that night when she thought about how the kid was raised.

Pandora went into a fitful sleep filled with dreams of fighting and winning.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Yay December update! Happy Holidays! Here we see foreshadowing and character development.**

 **Fun Facts (Holiday Bonus) \- Layla Pierce focuses on Brazilian Jujitsu and Boxing. Pandora has trained in many arts and has a very mixed style favoring kicks, specifically high kicks she has trained mercilessly in Taekwando for, and a lot of getting in close and wrecking shit while slipping and ducking to not get hit. **

**Thanks to the following for reviewing (:**

 **altvalora (4x)  
Gallium Stoat  
Kiki's Stories of Awesomeness**


	6. Water Woes

**The Athletics Scholarship Student**

 _Chapter 6_

 _Water Woes_

 _*Reminder, italics can be word emphasis, Pandora's thoughts, or English_

* * *

It was a nice Sunday morning and Pandora was soundly sleeping when Shiko bounced into her room and yanked her covers off. Pandora groaned and tried to go back to sleep but Shiko wouldn't let her.

"Your cute friend Kyoya-kun called and told me to wake you and get you ready for a fun day!" Shiko told her, attempting to rouse her.

Pandora, half asleep, retorted, "Tell Kyoya-kun to shove his phone up his-"

"We're nice in this house Pandora-chan, asleep or not. Come on, up up up!"

While it took some time eventually Shiko woke up Pandora and had her eating a nice breakfast when the gate buzzer went off. Shiko let in Mori and Honey who were both wearing summery clothes and looked far more awake than she was.

"Here's her swimming supplies! Have fun!" Shiko waved them off as Mori carried Pandora to the limo when she realized they were taking her day off.

"No put me down! I want to sleep and watch Youtube videos of Layla Pierce!" Pandora cried, throwing her arms around angrily.

Getting Pandora into the limo was a very long process of her desperately grabbing on the door and sticking her limbs in tactical positions to make moving her more difficult. After they managed to get her inside the limo she had no idea where to sit and looked about ready to have a panic attack. Eventually she took a seat between Mori and Honey. She continued to complain about missing Layla Pierce's fight.

Pandora, still looking around nervously, sulked, "How will I know how her interview goes? I wanted to watch the livestream..."

"Aren't you excited? We're going to Kyo-chan's family's new aquatic park health resort!" Honey bounced excitedly, ignoring Pandora's continuous whining about Layla Pierce's fight.

Pandora groaned, "It's not like I can do anything there."

"Your host mother gave us this." Mori held up a large beach bag.

Pandora rolled her eyes, "It's a plastic brace that is meant to be used in the water. It's a hassle to change braces though and it's not like I have a swimsuit."

Pandora, despite her complaints, ended up changing the brace in the limo with Mori and Honey's help. The waterproof brace was lighter and more breakable but a nice shade of baby blue over the light leggings Pandora wore under the brace to keep it from biting into her skin. The brace wouldn't hold well against her standing though so Pandora had a pair of crutches to hobble around on.

"Great." Pandora moaned, upset, as she crutched down the pathway. She was a bit happy because her movement was actually much faster on crutches. However her right shoulder would feel this in the morning and her left was a mess that would give problems regardless. Gripping her left crutch was enough of a problem.

Kyoya greeted her especially and Pandora gave him the stink eye, "Health resort? Is this going to magically heal me?"

At Kyoya's no, Pandora crutched over to a lounge chair and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately almost immediately the twins were upon her and carried her against her will to where Haruhi was left with two nearly identical maids and a room with more swimsuits than Pandora thought a store would have in stock.

"You clearly need a blue swimsuit to match your brace." Kaoru hummed, Hikaru adding, "She has a bust so nothing with frills."

Haruhi was the opposite, she needed frills.

Pandora shook her head, "I can't wear a swimsuit."

"Why not?" Kaoru inquired.

Pandora looked away and Haruhi picked up on what was probably keeping her back. The redhead didn't like talking about her accident, never mentioning much of what happened. None of the teenagers knew anything other than there was an accident that resulted in her looking like this.

Hikaru was more abrasive than Kaoru, demanding, "We brought really nice swimsuits! You have to try some!"

"No. I said no and my answer will not change." Pandora almost snarled.

She grabbed the crutches from Hikaru and turned around to hobble out.

"Why not?" Hikaru questioned, "They're designer brand!"

Pandora ignored him and hobbled out despite him and his brother calling after her. She returned to the lounge chair she initially tried to lay in and found Kyoya parked beside it with his laptop on his lap and a drink with a little umbrella sticking out of it.

"That's a stupid shirt." Pandora huffed angrily.

Kyoya looked down at his Hawaiin floral printed button up, "I think it's quite appropriate. More so than what you're wearing."

Pandora just scoffed and while she realized she was projecting her anger, she refused to apologize to Kyoya. She did want to admit that she was out of place considering everyone else was wearing swimming attire and she was wearing leggings and a long sleeved wife beater with a loose sports tank top over it.

As Pandora watched Honey and Mori splash around in the river-pool she tried to fall back to sleep. However after she was finally getting comfortable again, Kyoya bothered her.

"Swimming could build up your body again." he commented casually.

Pandora opened a single eye to look at him, "Oh?"

"At the very least, it will give you exercise that you haven't gotten since your accident." Kyoya gave her his usual frustrating smile and returned to his laptop without another word.

Pandora sighed. The man was good, she had to admit. He had managed to hit her interest head on. She shuffled out of her lounge chair and lowered herself to sit at the edge of the river. It was a bit of a strong current so she wasn't too offended when Mori walked over to help her get in. Honey was perfectly fine as both a swimmer and due to the fact he was in a pink floaty.

"Can't you swim fine?" Pandora inquired while Mori held the back of her tank top so that she wouldn't float away or drown. She was slowly swimming forward in a regular stroke while kicking her legs lightly behind her.

Mori held Pandora back as she kept herself afloat. She started to struggle a bit after her initial burst of energy because she couldn't bend her right leg still.

Honey smiled, "Yup!"

Pandora paused in her swimming and started to tread the water before she tilted her head to the side, "Why do you have a tube then?"

"Because it's cute!" he answered childishly.

Mori gave the edge of Pandora's tank top to Honey as he slipped out of the water to get a drink. Pandora struggled alongside Honey and the small upperclassman watched as her face moved through several emotions.

First was determination. Then there was happiness. Then frustration. Defeat came quickly and she slowed down. But then came that stubborn look in her eyes and Pandora started to move faster than when she started. She kept her head above the water for the most part and there was the sheen of sweat on her brow as she worked. It was enticing to watch and made Honey want to work just as hard as her.

Honey vaguely recalled seeing one or two of Pandora's fights but he had never focused on his opponents in any of his matches. He worked hard and trained but fighting wasn't as important to him as it was to Pandora.

"You should stop before you hurt yourself, Pan-chan!" Honey admonished and Pandora grinned madly.

She laughed mercilessly, "Stop? Why would I stop? I haven't felt this good in months!"

That was when they felt it. Pandora stopped and leaned on Honey's tube because suddenly the current stilled for a moment. Then they turned together and looked behind them as there was a pull and coming towards them was a large burst of water that was pulled into a large wave.

Both of them paled and inhaled deeply upon seeing it. Honey and Pandora grabbed each other as the wave hit and the two were dragged in multiple confusing directions by the harsh current. Honey didn't let go even after Pandora's fingers slipped and they held together until they washed up on a beach themed area.

"Fuuuuuck." Pandora moaned, laying face up. Her tank top was ripped and gone now, having been torn off from Honey trying to grip it.

She wiggled all her toes and fingers to make sure her body was fine and she slowly sat up. Her abs screamed at her and she nearly fell back down again. But she persevered and was proud to find she was getting stronger again.

"Fuck." she swore again. Her brace was broken and her crutches were gone which meant she couldn't move.

Honey approached her from where he landed a few meters away. His tube was gone leaving Pandora able to admire the fact he was physically fit. Like her, the amount of muscle mass someone so small had was awkward to look at. Pandora knew that before she lost some of her figure from the long recuperation period after her accident where she couldn't leave or even move in her hospital bed, she had been attractive only in theory.

She could remember her male fans cheering for her and leering. She was toned and fit which automatically made her fair game. Once you got a good look at her though the muscles looked out of place on a girl who may not even reach your collar bone.

Honey crouched beside Pandora, "Are you alright?"

"No." Pandora admitted after trying to find a way to turn that answer into a yes, "My brace is broken and I likely won't be able to move myself. I'm going to need to stop in at the hospital as soon as possible for damage control."

"Does anything hurt?" Honey pushed, eyeing her leggings where the brace's brackets were off and turned with some screws missing.

Pandora paused, "Yes. But it's nothing unmanageable."

"On a scale of one to ten, Pan-chan?"

Pandora had to think again, "Maybe a seven?"

"That's not manageable!" Honey scolded.

"Well, I'm not really too bothered by pain anymore." Pandora shrugged. Honey pouted but swept Pandora up into his arms and stood.

Pandora gawked, "Did you just pick me up?"

"We're going to find everybody!" Honey chirped in response. Pandora was pretty amazed how Honey handled it. While her leg was certainly burning now from the lack of support she could hold out until they found everyone else. She wasn't going to let Honey know that him picking her up without something really bracing her leg wasn't a good idea.

They entered the forest of trees and Pandora really got a good look at the place. She had to admit, Kyoya's family really went big when they decided to do something. The forest of trees they entered wasn't just that. It was an authentic jungle as they quickly found out when a crocodile eyed them as they passed.

"Is that real!?" Pandora gasped.

Honey wasn't even phased. He just kept moving while Pandora was in disbelief when she saw tropical birds fly by. There were even tropical fruit like bananas growing on each tree.

"I'm honestly so mad Kyoya's family has the ability to do this." Pandora admitted when she stared up at the dome that was high above the park. When it started to drizzle after a few minutes Pandora was even madder.

They found an area to sit out the random and really authentic rain. It was a small playground area that was tree house themed. Honey and Pandora sat beneath the playground's base and watched as the water started to come down a bit harder.

Pandora frowned, "This really feels like a horror movie setting. I'm making it official, without a ton of people this entire place is creepy."

"It's scary but we're together, Pan-chan!" Honey announced.

Pandora frowned, "You can drop the act you know."

"What act?" Honey returned sweetly.

Pandora mimicked his cutesy actions and raised the pitch of her voice, cooing, "This one!"

Honey didn't drop it, "I'm just naturally cute, Pan-chan!" He tilted his head and smiled to emphasize it.

She rolled her eyes, "And didn't I tell you not to call me that?"

"Oopsies?"

Pandora figured the senior wasn't going to stop calling her that. She actually didn't mind it so much anymore. Now that they were actually friends nicknames weren't so offensive to her.

"Pan-chan, what happened in your accident?" Honey questioned after a few minutes of silence between them.

"Bit of a heavy conversation starter." Pandora replied, not continuing.

Honey dropped it, clearly getting the message, "Does your leg feel better?"

"Yeah." she lied. She wasn't sure if Honey caught her lie or not.

"How come you're acting so childish today? You're pretty smart and mature, don't deny it because I know." Pandora wondered. She watched Honey look away. She thought back to what happened over the week. The twins started to fight in the middle of the week after last Sunday Pandora had run into Haruhi at the grocery store, and then yesterday there was that entire thing involving the elementary school kid.

Pandora took what she saw as a shot in the dark, "Was it that kid? Shiru or Shizu or something?"

Honey answered seriously, "Shiro-chan."

"Yeah him." Pandora nodded, "Was he it? Did you maybe feel... threatened by his cuteness?"

"I'm cuter than him!" Honey insisted and Pandora realized she was right.

Pandora turned away to laugh into her hand. Honey clearly knew she was laughing at him and Pandora tried to get her laughter under control. But the more she thought of the third year getting jealous of the kid...

"Hey Honey-senpai, how old are you?" Pandora asked.

Honey was very willing to change the topic, "Eighteen. I have an early birthday so I'm the oldest of the year!"

Pandora nodded, and commented, "So am I. January 25th."

"So you're sixteen, Pan-chan?" Honey questioned, receiving another nod in response. The conversation died again for a bit before Honey stood up.

"The rain's stopping. We can go find everyone now!" Honey smiled and lifted Pandora again. She had to hold in a yelp at the sudden movement of her leg.

Honey trooped out towards the forest and Pandora rolled her eyes, "Such an optimist it hurts."

They walked through the forest and Pandora was starting to feel very uncomfortable in Honey's arms. She was actually upset she couldn't walk herself. She told herself, this would have never happened had I not been like this.

Then they spotted Mori. Thankfully he was tall and both could easily spot him through the trees however they immediately also saw the trouble that surrounded them. Armed guards had guns trained on Mori who was carrying Haruhi very similarly to how Honey was carrying Pandora. Honey dropped Pandora who prioritized her leg over falling correctly and she slammed her shoulders on the ground first in an attempt to land her legs gently.

She had a great view to watch Honey leap up and grab a vine of all things and swing into the group, yelling, "Takashi! Haru-chan! Move!"

Pandora felt the jealously well up inside her as Honey landed a flying sidekick to one guard and proceeded to stack them and take them down easily and efficiently with throws using their weight against them.

She would have done that had it been before the accident. Pandora made a fist and grit her teeth as her body groaned for her to move like he was. He even did a flip which was a bit more acrobatic flare than Pandora would have used in such a dangerous fight.

"Pan-chan! I found Takashi and Haru-chan!" Honey cheered to her after he spoke with Mori and Haruhi for a few moments.

"Great, find me an ambulance next!" she called back bitterly. Honey's hand faltered as he went to wave to her and when there were calls of the rest of their friends finding them, Honey turned to them. As Kyoya called in for paramedics Pandora twitched.

"Honey's been the National Champion in Judo and Karate since middle school!" one of the twins boasted, the other adding, "He's the best of his family and they instruct the police and military!"

Tamaki added, "Come to think of it Mori-senpai's been the Kendo National Champion since middle school too."

It wasn't fair, Pandora thought, leaning her head back and staring up at the sky.

Why didn't she have titles like that? And why wasn't she that feared, she wondered when all the police Honey had rendered useless were suddenly bowing at his feet. Sure she had a reputation as unbeatable but she hadn't made it to the championships. Her accident had struck her down and while she had been a national fighter who was seemingly unbeatable, she hadn't actually been a champion. Why was this her fate?

Everything was always stacked against her and suddenly Pandora was back where she started. Feeling alone and helpless as she stared at the Host Club standing beside each other.

 _I don't belong in that equation_ , she was thinking, _they're all perfect and naturally good at what they do._

Tamaki was a natural born leader, Kyoya a businessman, Haruhi the Natural Type, the twins born fashion designers, Mori a Kendo champion and Honey being the world's seemingly best fighter.

Pandora for once accepted she may be crippled and closed her eyes.

 _Why did I think life was worth living again, when it's nothing without fighting?_

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Sorry for the delay? I have the next three or so chapters done, they have been done since last update, but I'm just lazy and never put it in a document to upload. To be honest I kept putting it off like 'It hasn't been thaaat long since I updated' and wow, its been like 7 months. So I apologize and hope you haven't lost interest in Pandora's sulking and bitching.**

 **This update is totally because I received like three reviews the past week looking for an update and I was like O SHIT ITS BEEN AWHILE**

 **Fun Fact : Pandora doesn't like milk. She used to like chocolate milk before her diet.**

 **Thanks to the following for reviewing (:**

 **Airedhiella  
Persephone Fey Rose  
Toreh  
Bookbug5675  
Kiki's Stories of Awesomeness  
AnimeBunnyLover**


	7. Return of a Rival

**The Athletics Scholarship Student**

 _Chapter 7_

 _Return of a Rival_

* * *

Pandora reached the hospital after Kyoya had her comfortably extract from the amusement park by his people. They brought her to an Ootori hospital where he assured her that because the accident was brought on in one of their parks all her expenses would be taken of.

"Personally by me, even." Kyoya promised as he walked beside her gurney. Pandora was on her way for an X-ray to see what the harsh current had done to her. While the rest of her was mostly put back together after the accident her right leg was still a danger and anything could have shifted if it was still weak and not healed yet.

Pandora nodded, vaguely listening, "M'kay."

Kyoya stopped and watched as they wheeled her into a room and the doors swung closed behind her. He returned to the waiting room where the rest of the club was changed into casual clothing and waiting anxiously for news. Kyoya had called Shiko on his way to the hospital and he was sure she would show up soon.

"How is Pan-chan?" Honey demanded while hugging his pink bunny, Usa-chan, for comfort when he saw Kyoya approaching.

"She's in for an X-ray of her leg now and they're going to fully check her." Kyoya informed them, "There's no possibility of anything going wrong and she'll be out soon enough."

The results on the other hand, could be worse Kyoya found himself thinking. The look on her face hadn't been good when he approached her while the rest of the club was distracted by the police force begging Honey's apology. She had been staring up at the trees with a hopeless expression across her face and her limbs were twitching but it didn't seem like she felt it in the slightest.

When Shiko showed up with her husband in tow, Kyoya rose from his chair to meet them.

Shiko was half hysterical, "Is she okay?"

Hajime had a comforting arm around his wife's shoulders and he was giving Kyoya a critical look. Kyoya lifted a tissue box from a nearby table and offered it to Shiko who took it and sniffled into it.

"She will be in a visitor's room soon. Nothing was too serious." Kyoya explained, "This is just a precaution."

Shiko shook her head, "This is serious to her though."

"Pandora-chan is going to be set back severely from this." agreed Hajime gravely.

Kyoya bowed his head, "Forgive me then, I should have controlled the park better. Any medical expenses are being taken care of by the Ootori group-"

Shiko cut him off, eyes red from the crying she had been doing in the car, "Pandora is never going to recover from her accident, Kyoya-kun. Her body will never be able to handle what it once did and she's destroyed by this. Her mind is thinking to itself, 'I can't move so what use am I?' and this is going to make that so much worse!"

Hajime added, loud enough where the rest of the host club could easily hear, "She's been doing well since you befriended her. She hasn't brooded for hours like she did when she first arrived. But now..."

Shiko turned and grasped her husband's shirt into her dainty hands, "I'm scared she's going to revert back."

Honey vividly recalled Pandora's outbursts at him and he was aware she had been much calmer and accepting recently. She was naturally a hot tempered person and she was generally very brash and blunt regardless of how she was feeling. But he also knew Pandora was a big fat liar who refused to show any weakness.

What was Pandora truly thinking? Honey wondered.

Pandora was moved into a room some time later and Shiko and Hajime were allowed in first. When they exited nearly half an hour later Shiko was crying and Hajime had to be the one to tell them.

"She said she wants everyone to leave her alone." Hajime announced, "And they gave her the results but she wouldn't tell us."

Kyoya slipped away to get the results and Hajime led Shiko to a chair where she melted into it and dragged her husband down into the chair beside her. When Kyoya returned Shiko was drinking a tea Haruhi had retrieved for her and her tears were long gone.

"Kyoya-kun?" Hajime inquired when Kyoya approached. He held a file in one hand and a pokerface was the best way to describe his expression. Kyoya handed the file to Hajime and he skimmed it before sighing in relief.

"You had me worried with that face." Hajime whispered before raising his voice so the host club could here, "Pandora-chan will be fine. Her injuries were jostled around a bit but nothing was rebroken or anything serious. Her pride just took a major hit."

The club cheered and received a few annoyed looks from the other patrons. Hajime took Kyoya aside as Shiko chatted rather cheerfully with the Host Club. She was very pleased to be meeting the rest of her host daughter's friends despite the circumstances.

"What was the face for?" Hajime asked quietly.

Kyoya gestured for Hajime to follow and they stepped outside of the room. Kyoya flipped through the folder to the scan of Pandora's right leg. Hajime sighed when he saw it.

"She'll never recover." Hajime murmured. Pandora's leg was a mess. It had been broken in half in several places when Hajime had seen her original xray and parts of the bone had been smashed into pieces. Surgery after surgery put her back together and there were low chances that she would be able to move around on the leg again like she used to. Pins were now set along her leg in many intervals and her knee was half fake after being blown out the wrong way.

Kyoya shook his head, "She may be able to."

He called over a doctor who began to explain to Hajime what had been explained to him. In short Pandora's case wasn't as hopeless as it looked. With more surgery and a lot more healing she would be able to move around again. Without the cane, at the very least. It would be strongly advised she not go back into heavy fighting but she could potentially still do light sparring and kickboxing as long as she learned to pace herself. Potentially, being the key word.

Broken bones weren't as bad as they looked, the doctor explained. Bones healed surprisingly well and while Pandora was certainly fragile they would be able to reinforce her bones with a puddy that hardened to plaster after it was injected into her bone. It would essentially fix her up to as good as new although her knee was something else entirely.

"What about her arms? Her left hand can't grip a pencil and her right gets shaky after awhile." Hajime interrogated, "Her left leg isn't perfect either. It was broken in the initial accident as well."

"Pandora-san has a lot of problems but they can all be mended to a point. It's..." the doctor gave Kyoya a cautious look, "Costly."

Hajime scowled, "Her family can pay. They have all her money that she won."

Kyoya sensed there were some hard feelings here and he stepped back out. When Hajime returned he collected Shiko, no doubt to tell her about what he just heard, and the two left the room.

"Can we try and visit Pandora?" Tamaki begged, "Think of how lonely she is!"

Kyoya gave him an annoyed look when a few patrons glared at his volume, "You can try if you keep your voice down and do not disturb the other visitors."

Tamaki looked around and did manage to look sheepish. He announced they would stop at the gift shop for flowers first and dragged Haruhi with him towards the gift shop. The twins followed after him with the sole purpose of giving him hell regarding him dragging Haruhi with him.

Honey and Mori remained with Kyoya, the former looking up at Kyoya with big eyes, "Is Pan-chan upset?"

Kyoya nodded and Honey pouted. He pushed off the chair and headed towards the doors that led towards the patients room. He looked over his shoulder when Mori went to follow, "I'm going to give Pan-chan Usa-chan to stay with her while she's here so she feels better!"

Mori stayed behind and watched as the doors swallowed his cousin up. Kyoya sat down and pulled out his little black book. Honey made his way to Pandora's room and let himself in without knocking.

Her room was a single with a comfortable couch under the window and many machines that weren't hooked up. Pandora herself was staring at the TV with a bitter glare. Her lips were drawn into a scowl and when she saw Honey it only worsened.

"Go away." she snarled, "I'm not in the mood for you!"

She had the blanket tucked up to her neck and it looked like she wasn't planning on moving at all. It was kind of awkward to see Pandora as just an angry head without the rest of her.

Honey ignored her and pulled himself up on the bed next to her to sit down. Pandora growled but he ignored her and looked up at the TV.

No wonder she was so angry, the championship match she should had participated in was being replayed. Honey turned it off and Pandora looked away from him.

"Just leave me alone. I don't want anything to do with any of you anymore."

Honey frowned, "It wasn't anyone's fault-"

"No that's not it." Pandora interupted him, "I just don't want anything to do with you guys anymore."

"We're your friends, Pan-chan. You're stuck with us now." Honey retorted childishly, "You can't make us go away now."

Pandora snorted and turned her head to glare at the TV screen. It was off but Honey was sure she was still thinking about the match someone had left on for her.

The door opened again and the rest of the club poured in cheerfully. Pandora gave Honey what he would call her murder eyes because they seemed to darken and resembled a stormy day's clouds.

And yet she kept up a good act and the twins and Tamaki didn't seem to notice the forced neutral expression or the bitterness her eyes contained. Haruhi clearly noticed but knew not to say anything, Kyoya and Mori both noticed but visibly didn't react.

They left after putting a bouquet of flowers which represented good health and friendship on her table and a small teddy bear Haruhi had promised, "Was my idea." Because certainly Tamaki would have wanted to get a teddy bear about the size of Pandora.

After they were all finally gone, Pandora removed her arms from below the blankets. Scars settled across each arm whether from surgery or the accident. Pandora looked at her bare left arm and her eyes watered as she remembered the bone sticking out in two places after the accident.

No one, she promised, would see her weakness like this. No one would see the scars that littered her body and showcased what she had been through. No one was allowed to read her like this.

Pandora went home two days later after Hajime and Shiko explained all that the doctor had explained to Hajime. She didn't let the flicker of hope in her chest stay.

"We need to talk to your parents about this." Hajime explained, "They need to finance it."

Pandora immediately scowled, "They won't."

"It's rightfully your money." Shiko pointed out.

"Yeah but its theirs until I'm eighteen. And there won't be any left by then." Pandora huffed. She slid off the couch and pushed herself up with her crutches. She was supposed to be on these for a week to let her leg settle again. More down time, just like with the accident.

"But there's hope, Pandora-chan!" Shiko cried. Pandora looked over her shoulder in time for Shiko to barrel into her and wrap her arms around the girl.

Pandora refused to let her heart agree. It wanted to, she wanted to believe. But there was no way she would ever be back to where she wanted to be. The doctor had said so himself. No fighting like she did. Light sparring and kickboxing classes with pacing, and that was only a possibility. It wasn't guranteed she would ever be able to do anything she loved ever again.

Besides, even with that possibility, Pandora wasn't someone who paced herself. She worked herself beyond her limit. Muhammed Ali once said "I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That's what makes you a champion." and Pandora had lived by that quote.

What good was she if she couldn't push herself anymore?

"I'm going to bed."

Hajime frowned, "We haven't had dinner yet."

Pandora ignored him, saying again, "I'm going to bed."

She went to her room and closed the door. She lowered herself into her bed and found herself eyeing the plaques that decorated her wall. She won many fights but now she would never win another fight ever again.

" _Layla Pierce_." Pandora whispered, remembering the fight she had been watching in the hospital, " _Our war ended prematurely and despite winning every battle, I've lost_."

But the war hadn't ended.

.

A week later, a girl who stood at the monstrous height of 5'11 in American terms, was unimpressed by the shade of pink that the school before her was. Her skin was dark and her hair a chocolate brown that was pulled into a long ponytail. It was tight to her head in well-kept cornrows and she flipped them over her shoulder when she walked towards the school building after tossing her car keys to the valet.

She met with the headmaster and went over her final transfer details before joining Class 2-A. She bowed to the class upon arrival and with perfect Japanese introduced herself, "My name is Pierce Layla. A pleasure to meet you."

Kyoya's glasses flashed as he looked at the fit young woman and realized that there was going be a problem regarding a small and typically angry girl. Layla took a seat in the front of class and when lunch came around, Tamaki instantly waltzed up to her.

"My darling princess!" he began and Layla looked quite taken aback, "My name is Suoh Tamaki and I would like to welcome you to Ouran! I also invite you to come visit our club, the Ouran High School Host Club after school!"

Layla looked at all the other starstruck girls, muttering, " _Princess? Is that what he called me_?"

"Princess?" Tamaki repeated again, biting his lip when Layla hardly acknowledged him. Then suddenly she was standing with a burning in her eyes. There was a deep contrast with this girl against Pandora. While Pandora's eyes were a raging storm, hers were a burning fire.

Layla's hazel eyes seemed to have drawn out the yellows and red-browns in her anger, "Are you talking down to me?"

"No, of course not prince-"

Layla cut him off, bringing her head closer and sneering, "I will not tolerate any man talking down to me like that."

Kyoya started to approach while Tamaki laughed and tried to diffuse the situation, "My, you're a lot like Pandora-"

"Pandora Jones?" barked Layla immediately, "You know her?"

Tamaki blinked and Kyoya reached them, answering, "She's a part of our club, Pirusu-san."

"Pierce." Layla huffed, "Not whatever you said."

"Pierce-san." Kyoya annunciated carefully but quickly and quite fluently for his second attempt.

Layla accepted it, "Now, Host Club you said? And Pandora will be there? Alright, I'll come. Now scram."

Layla left the room with an American lunchbox dangling from her fingers. Tamaki threw Kyoya a worried look, "Won't she be mad? She hasn't been in a good mood since the hospital."

"Her spirits will be relatively lifted today because she's back on her cane." Kyoya replied, pushing up his glasses, "Hopefully they don't try and brawl."

Tamaki looked bewildered and Kyoya, as a way of explanation, demurred, "That was Pierce Lera, the new kickboxing World Champion. She and Pandora were going to fight for that title. They are rivals, after all."

At the club later, Pandora ignored the looks Tamaki kept giving her. The rest of the club clearly noticed and the twins were pestering him about it. Even Haruhi was curious but she left it well alone.

Hosting hour began and Pandora was doing laps around the room with her cane. She was clearly in an awful mood and Honey's constant pestering her to try some cake wasn't helping in the slightest.

"Try some, Pan-chan!" Honey insisted, offering up a slice of strawberry shortcake. The disgruntled girl in question looked at the cake like it offended her.

"No." Pandora immediately denied, stalking away at full speed.

A new voice, deep and sultry caught her attention though, "Yeah, Pandora. Try some. It's not like you need to watch your diet anymore."

Pandora immediately recognized the voice. She would never forget it and despite the different language she knew exactly who it was.

"Layla." Pandora greeted, turning on her heel slowly and facing the much taller girl who leaned against the door, "What are you doing here?"

Layla pushed off the wall and approached Pandora. She circled her and snickered, "It's pathetic to see you like this. Crippled and useless."

Pandora immediately barked back, "I can still take you of all people!"

At this point the entire club was staring with all the guests. No one dared interupt the two due to the brewing tension in the air. Layla chuckled and stepped forward, bending her knees and leaning forward so she was close to Pandora's face.

"A cripple couldn't possibly take the new World Champion on."

Pandora swung her cane while balancing on her left and Layla easily blocked it, taunting, "You can't even hurt me with a weapon anymore! Weakling!"

"Call me weak one more time." Pandora growled.

"Weak midget." Layla sneered while releasing the cane. Pandora set it on the ground and put her weight back on it.

Snarling, Pandora hissed, "If it weren't for my accident..."

"Boo hoo. You got hit by a car. The way I heard it, you got off easy. What about your poor little boy toy? What was his name...?" Layla trailed, watching as Pandora's eyes got darker and darker and her face went through several different expressions.

Layla snapped her fingers, "Thomas, wasn't it?"

Haruhi recognized that name. Pandora had brought it up before but had killed the conversation before any more was said.

" _Do not bring up Thomas_." Pandora said, her voice low.

Layla smiled, "He was put in a coma, wasn't he? Then when he woke up... he couldn't remember you."

Pandora stiffened. Tamaki had both his hands over his mouth and the twins were starting to look uncomfortable. At first they had been amused by the fight but now it was clearly very personal.

"What, you don't want to remember? How you almost killed your only friend-" Layla dodged as Pandora threw herself at the taller girl. Pandora crashed to the floor and logrolled away in case Layla tried to stomp on her. Pandora grabbed the nearby chair that held one of their clients and pulled herself up.

Layla laughed, "You're pathetic! You can't even get up! Oh how the mighty have fallen!"

" _I'll fucking kill you_ -!" Pandora roared, trying to run forwards but as soon as her weight was on her right leg a strangled noise came from her throat and she collapsed to that side.

"Enough." Mori was beside her in an instant and he scooped her up. He looked down at Layla and the tall girl felt her heart do a swoop.

He was taller than her, she realized. He was taller than her by a lot. Layla's heart skipped a beat or two.

Then Layla looked down when a small voice announced, "Picking on my friend is a big no-no!"

Layla cracked a smile when she saw a boy who looked like he belonged in elementary school, "You got a kid defending you now? How funny. At least he's your size, midget."

Kyoya seemed to materialize beside Mori and Honey and he bowed to Layla, "I'm afraid I must ask you to leave, Pierce-san."

"Oh? Am I disrupting your little social hour?" Layla looked around with an amused expression. All the girls were staring and Layla briefly realized that she probably hadn't given them the best impression of her. Her heart dropped when she realized she gave the tall, handsome man the same impression. She felt a twinge of jealously when she realized he was still holding Pandora.

" _Let me go! I'm going to rip off her legs and beat her with them_!" Pandora was struggling viciously but the tall man wouldn't let her go and her struggles were like nothing to him.

Kyoya took her attention back when he nodded, "You are, in fact. You are welcome to return if you change your attitude towards our beloved friend and club member."

Pandora froze, mouthing the words 'beloved friend' as if she had never heard them before.

Layla's mouth dropped and she eyed each club member who was giving her similar looks of disapproval. Her heart nearly broke when she realized the tall man was giving the same look as the rest of them.

Huffing, Layla turned on her heel and stormed out the door while snarling about rich people being snooty and pretentious. Pandora was gently let to the floor and handed her cane. She immediately fled the room full speed.

When she got home, Pandora snarled at the pictures on her wall that accompanied the plaques. One picture was a well timed photo of Pandora catching a bending Layla square in the jaw with a roundhouse kick. Layla had immediately been knocked out by the kick.

Pandora threw her cane and fell onto her bed. Tears collected in her eyes and Shiko stood outside the door with a worried frown as Pandora screamed, " _I hate my life_!"

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Hello! Sorry I left it on such a cliffhanger. I have chapters for this written ahead but they're on my personal laptop, not my school one and I usually don't have my personal laptop turned on to avoid distraction from schoolwork.**

 **I honestly love writing Pandora. The hardest parts of this story is how I try to keep the episodes similar, but spiced up with Pandora's charm with little differences. I don't want the episodes that I put in to feel like Pandora is merely just there, I want her to be a part of it. That's the hardest part.**

 **Thanks to the following for reviewing (:**

 **SwedishFanFictionLover (Your review really inspired me!)  
BlackDove WhiteDove  
fanfictionnatic  
SpringBorn  
HeartlessVampireGirl  
Airedhiella  
Persephone Fey Rose**


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